Egg drop: learning through discovery
November 5, 2009 by Julia
Filed under Featured, kid projects and DIY
A month of thanks giving: I am thankful and grateful for the all experiences of my life, especially the people who have journeyed with me to the present day.
In my pre-children life, I had the privilege of coaching some of the finest young minds for a competition called Science Olympiad, and this experience, taking teams to represent the state of Texas at four Nationals, continues to this day to influence what I do with my children. Though my students never competed in this event as it was elementary and middle school level, I loved watching the little ones compete in “the egg drop.” They always looked like they were having more fun doing this than any other event.
The competition was always fierce, but the concept was so simple. Given a set of materials, create a protective device within a specific time frame so that when an egg is dropped from a specific height, the egg does not break. Sounds simple, right? It’s not.
I have adapted this competitive event for my children to do as a fun backyard activity.
Materials:
- styrofoam cup or any non-shattering container
- ladder
- 1 dozen eggs (uncooked, washed with some vinegar to minimize Salmonella contamination)
- Instead of gathering all of the materials, I ask my daughter to come up with a list of things that we should use to protect the egg inside of the cup. We hunt around the house for materials, coming up with things like cotton balls, wash cloths, etc.
Directions: I hand the styrofoam cup to my child, and I have her build a protective shell around the egg that fits inside of the styrofoam cup. When she is done making the protective casing, I ask to make sure if she is finished. Then I help her climb up the ladder, hand her the cup, and ask her to drop her egg vessel straight down. After helping her back down, we then observe the egg container.
Is the egg broken? If it is, what do we need to do to fix the container to make it more protective? Do we need more materials? If the egg didn’t break, will the container still work if we drop it from a greater height?
The idea here is to exercise logic and to learn through self-discovery.
It is best to do this over an area that you can hose down (or at least mop up) easily. I guarantee that this will be one of the more fun things that you and your child will do, and the best thing is that it is a relatively inexpensive activity, utilizing mostly what is around the house and just a carton of eggs, if even that many.
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