7th and 8th grade students worked in their STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics) class to create a container that would keep an egg intact when dropped from the roof of our school. In this cooperative learning project, students thought about materials and design, while working through the engineering design cycle of testing, making changes, and re-testing. Thank you to Mr. Burke and Miss Elkins for facilitating the project, and to custodian Ryan Trundy for climbing up on the roof to help with the drops.
Some were successful, some were not - but either way, students learned a lot and had fun! Here is what some of the students had to say:
“It was a fun experience and gave us room to improve. Now I think about how I could have done it differently!” - Addie P
“It stood the drop with the packing peanuts on the side and bottom. The parachute also came in handy to slow the fall. In all, I think the egg drop was very fun.” - Kaidan P
“At first I thought that our team's egg was gonna totally survive, but I was wrong. Our parachute deployed (unlike some others), and glided the egg down to the ground. But that was not enough because the egg cracked.“ - Connor H
“I'm not surprised that our egg broke because our model wasn't the best. We put packing peanuts and plastic bags on all sides. I think that we would have done better with a parachute because parachutes make it so it can fall slower.” - Quinn P
“It was very stressful. When he dropped it I could barely look.” - James S
“The egg drop project was exciting and fun. We all had fun watching the eggs drop and cheering each other on! It took some time to plan out and strategize but everyone had fun.” - Lily G
“It was like watching a plane take off at the airport.” - Sully H
“We got to have a few laughs, and I felt nervous watching it drop even though I knew it wouldn't break because you should expect the unexpected.” - Autumn M
“It was a really egg-cellent experiment. It was fun making it and watching. I really didn't think ours would survive but it did.” - Tanner M
“Our plan was to build a triangle shaped contraption like a pyramid made of straws, tape, and hot glue. We attached a parachute made of a trash bag and rope. The egg fit snug into the contraption making it so the egg would definitely not fall out.” - Marlaina R