Seven Hills School in Walnut Creek breaks ground on new science center

Groundbreaking includes elaborate, Rube Goldberg-style demolition.

Seven Hills School in Walnut Creek developed an elaborate Rube Goldberg of mechanical devices that eventually swung a bowling ball through a wall of Styrofoam for the official groundbreaking of a new science center.

The expanded lab will double the number of lab stations and create an outdoor science center.

Science Teacher Matt Shargel and his students set up a complicated series of mechanical devices that started with a ribbon cutting that sent a ball rolling down a ramp to turn on a robot that eventually sent a basketball through a hoop, that tripped more wires that knocked boxes down a staircase, setting off bottle rockets, tripping wires that went over the roof, down a staircase and into the science lab, where the bowling ball crashed through the wall to major cheers.

Teachers and trustees dressed in lab coats, children drank grape juice out of beakers and most of the school’s 370 students watched the events, projected on the gymnasium wall.
 

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