Kids (and grown-ups who loved the Mouse Trap board game when they were young) get hands-on at ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain’s “Rube Goldberg: The World of Hilarious Invention!” exhibit in Burlington. With the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and inventor’s iconic kooky contraptions as inspiration, the traveling show uses life-size machines, interactive displays, and a whole lot of ramps, ropes, pulleys and pipes to illustrate overcomplicated and inefficient chain reactions, making the case that the shortest path between two points isn’t necessarily the most fun. Catch Rube Goldberg expert Zach Umperovitch building his own on-site throughout the week.
