NASHUA – Inspired by cartoonist Rube Goldberg, Nashua Catholic eighth-grade students created and demonstrated more than 125 different whimsical machines for their annual science fair that complete simple tasks such as watering a plant, feeding a fish, pouring a bowl of cereal, and cracking an egg.

The students had to include a minimum of four steps using such simple machines as a pulley, wedge, lever, screw and wheel.

Brianna Veilleux, of Brookline, built a machine to water flowers.

“I learned a lot about simple machines when I started building my Rube Goldberg machine,” Brianna said.

“I also learned not to give up but to make changes and modify my idea until I finally got it.”

When asked how consistent her flower watering machine worked, Veilleux smiled and said, “Works every time!”

Goldberg, an American cartoonist was educated as an engineer but is best known for a series of popular cartoons depicting complex gadgets that perform simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways that usually include a chain reaction.

Most students remember playing the popular 1963 board game, Mouse Trap, which was based on Rube Goldberg’s machines. Goldberg won a Pulitzer Prize in 1948 for his cartoons.

“This year’s machines were all outstanding,” Guy Morin, physical science teacher at Nashua Catholic, said.

“It’s wonderful to see the creativity and innovation along with the amount of work each student put into their machine. At first, students are quite puzzled by how to build a Rube Goldberg machine, but they discover through trial and error which type of machine works best to accomplish a particular task. When they see a step finally work, they are very pleased.”

“Our students have fun with this project,” Morin said. “It is a way of helping them transcend traditional ways of looking at problems. They learn a lot of lessons that cannot be taught in a classroom.”

For more information on Nashua Catholic Regional Jr. High School for seventh- and eighth-graders, call 882-7011, or visit www.ncrjhs.org.