A School Ribbon Meant for Cutting, Rube Goldberg Style

Science Leadership Academy has officially cut the ribbon! And made Rube Golberg proud:

A word about the ribbon cutting itself. We're a science school... so we didn't do the classic "big scissors" ribbon cutting. The students in Mr. VanKouwenberg's Intro to Engineering class designed the ribbon cutting as a Rube Goldberg-style adventure. If I can get a copy of video of it, I'll post it here, but until then, here was the sequence:

Dennis Wint, CEO of The Franklin Institute, pours the marbles into a tube.
The marbles land in a mug (with the SDP logo, actually) which rests on a scale
The extra weight tips the scale
Which lifts a lever
Which tips a ball-- tied to a string -- into a tube
As the ball falls, the string is pulled
Which releases a stopper
Which allows glycerine to fall onto a plate of potassium promagnate
Which sets off a reaction which burns
Which burns through a string
That releases the guillotine
The cuts the ribbon

Congrats to the entire SLA community: the class of 2010, the founding faculty, the Franklin Institute, the city of Philly, and Chris who figured that this crazy little dream might be possible!  Reading Chris' opening remarks speaks to the absolute finest intentions for modern day education we can find on this planet.  But I suspect that what SLA's students and future graduates will accomplish will only be hinted at by what Chris spoke of.  Again, congrats to the entire community.  Enjoy the future...and keep us posted!