Egg Drop

Thursday is the school's science club's "Egg Drop". Alex participates in the science club (he loves it!), and in order to participate in the egg drop, he needed to create something in which to drop the egg. The goal is that this egg holder would protect the egg from breakage when dropped from the school's roof onto the pavement below.

When I got home from work yesterday, Craig had raided my sewing supplies, looking for something soft and fluffy. I suggested that the kids pick up all the feathers in the yard and the park, but everyone just looked at me like I was nuts.

So we began creating the egg drop vehicle. We began with a plastic container that had housed cherry tomatoes. And part of a styrofoam egg carton. But padding....what to use? The quilt batting that Craig had found was insufficient. The egg moved around too much: of three drops (from about ten feet), two eggs broke. We needed the egg to stay still inside the container, but we also needed to absorb the shock at landing.

Cotton balls! Glue gun! I covered the inside and outside of the plastic tomato carton with cotton balls, then glued the egg carton pieces in place. Three drops out the second floor hall window, all successful.

But how will the egg fare from a school roof, onto the sidewalk? We'll find out Thursday afternoon.

::Edited to add: The egg fared well, surviving three of three falls. Which means he's advanced to the all-city egg drop in late April. Great news, because my dad (an engineer) is coming in town next weekend. My neighbor emailed me to let me know that in school she learned that pyramid shapes fare best, so we'll keep that in mind. Woot!::