Science Projects With an Egg Drop
The egg drop problem is a frequent topic found in science education. Using a combination of physics knowledge, engineering skills and imagination, students build a structure in which to hold an egg, which they then drop from a predetermined height. The goal, and competition, is for the egg to land unharmed and unbroken. Many variations on the basic experiment exist.
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The Egg Drop Problem
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The goal of the experiment is to drop an egg from a height of at least 10 feet without it breaking. Students design and build an apparatus that will cushion the egg's fall. As well as an understanding of physics topics, such as gravity, terminal velocity and inertia, the solution to the problem involves using engineering concepts as well as product design skills and MacGyver-like imagination.
Parameters
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Setting up the parameters of the project involves deciding from how high the egg will be dropped, the kind of surface it will land on and what kind of containers or structures students can build. Additional parameters include how many test runs the students can conduct, and how many tries at the full attempt they can make.
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Materials
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You can limit the materials that students use to build their structure. Instead of allowing students to choose their own materials, give them a list of 10 and allow them to choose any five materials. Alternatively, you can give them a list of materials that they must use, and nothing else. For example, the students can only use 15 straws, 10 Popsicle sticks, and one yard of tape. Another way of deciding on the materials is for every team or student to choose one material that everyone has to use.
Science
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Conducting the egg drop problem as a science experiment requires that the students keep a scientific journal of the process. The journal should contain an account of all the trials and discussions throughout the experiment, with drawings of the various structures that the students design, as well as the results of the experiments with these. Incorporating analyses of why students developed a particular design and why it did or did not work, allows students to apply their theoretical physics knowledge to the problem. Students can also perform calculations on the terminal velocity and impact of the egg and its structure, given the weight of the egg and the force of gravity.
Varying the Conditions
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Changing the conditions of the drop allows students to predict the results in the new circumstances. Moving the venue from indoors to outdoors brings in wind speed and direction factors, as well as introducing a new landing surface. Adding in new heights from which to drop the egg introduces the concept that some solutions may only work at some heights.
Alternate Solutions
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Instead of building a structure in which to encase the egg, ask students to create a plane or a parachute arrangement in which the egg floats gently to the ground. This introduces a new set of physics knowledge as well as a different engineering challenge.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit Egg image by Andrei Leczfalvi from Fotolia.com
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Comments
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I'm doing this for my project but this is for family.
