Hempfield students use engineering magic to clinch competition crown

Want to see a card trick? Hempfield high school students have one, and it takes over 20 different steps to execute.

Performed by a student-built contraption named “Ab’rube’cadabra,” Hempfield students clinched the top spot last week for the magic trick at the annual Chain Reaction Contraption competition held at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh — a feat that required over 400 working hours, according to their advisor Tom Harden, a chemistry teacher at the high school.

“We do spend a lot of time and effort on this project,” said senior Katelyn Johnson, 18. “Getting to reap the benefits of all that hard work and seeing the different teams we have work on different parts of the contraption … Its just really awesome.”

Participating in the event for the past nine years, Hempfield students have made the finals at least eight of those years, Harden said. This year, the Dec. 10 event drew over 250 students from local schools, who were required to build a machine that could accomplish a task based on the year’s theme. In this case, it was “Make a mess and clean it up.”

This year’s project involved a frustrated magician who realizes his one-step card trick was complicated thanks to changes made to the contraption by senior Jared Rivard, 17. Rivard, a first-year student on the team, said the contraption showed a card to the judges, but then made a mess of the deck. Through a series of steps, the machine eventually found the original card.

“Every piece has to fall perfectly in place … Each person in their role and doing it so well brought it all together,” he said. “It’s kind of like a masterpiece.”

In early September, Harden said students met for a brainstorming session where they decide on a theme to build the contraption around. A final decision is based on a majority vote.

Drawing inspiration from a magician in the 15-student group, students were split between “Cat in the Hat” and the card trick, Rivard said.

After settling on the card trick, students met once a week for three hours where they build their own prototype that can be taken to the event. Harden said students are required to attend a minimum of 25 hours build time where they have the help of two engineer mentors from the University of Pittsburgh.

A final session is held the day before Thanksgiving, giving students up to eight hours of work time.

“The goal every year (and it is rarely ever met) is to have the contraption completed by the end of this day so that all the time after that is used to make the contraption more reliable, to add lights and sound … or to paint the contraption,” Harden said in an email to the Tribune-Review.

Throughout the process, students are required to submit preliminary design drawings and progress photos to judges, which are taken into account for their final scores.

This year, the Greater Latrobe Senior High School team this year placed second, and students from Cambria Heights High School in Cambria County took third.

Judges also handed out nine special awards: Hempfield, most innovative; Penn-Trafford High School, most efficient reset; Greater Latrobe, longest successfully executed contraption; Pine-Richland, “what will you create”; Brentwood High School, best execution of a theme; and Central Catholic High School, rookie of the year.

Other schools also took home special awards including the Somerset Area Senior High School with the most green, Cambria Heights with the best use of gravity and Indian Creek High School (Wintersville, Ohio) with best presentation.

“By participating in this contest, the students also build additional skills necessary to be successful in this competition, in school, and beyond. Teamwork, problem solving, decision making, project management, and effective communication are all critical skills necessary to succeed,” Chris Savinda, manager of new plant project quality at Westinghouse and the company’s coordinator for the contest, said in a news release.

Hempfield won in previous years for a contraption that told the tale of nursery rhyme character Humpty Dumpty in 2015 and again in 2017 for a machine that could grant your fate.

“The success we have is from lots of hard work, high expectations, good, dedicated mentors, and students willing to put in the time necessary to be successful,” Harden said.