Thursday, April 9, 2009

Egg Drop

Every year during science week, the kids do an egg drop, where they will figure out a way to protect their egg so it doesn't break from a fall. Tradition is that the Fire Dept brings their ladder truck and drops the eggs from the top. The last 2 years the ladder truck was out of service, so they used a puny extension...probably like what is used for power lines and such. It was still a fun experiment, but everyone was glad to see the ladder truck show up today. This was also our new truck with the longer ladder. Fortunately for us, J was on duty, so...he was able to come and participate.

There's my fireman! Isn't he cute?
So, the kids take turns bringing their eggs up to the basket....and then the guys raise the ladder 95 feet...and drop each egg package off, one by one.
Here's Kas'. notice the parachute bag...to help make a soft landing..(for some reason, it didn't seem to work too well this year)....

She had her egg in a box, with the afore mentioned parachute attached, and because it's Kas' cute decorations on the outside....



stuffed with wrapping paper....packing foam and the like.

She had her egg nestled in this little doll slipper. She definitely has a feminine flair to her package. As you can see, the slipper isn't eggy...so her egg survived. I was a bit surprised, cause her box hit hard. but she did a good job of protecting it.


Here she is with some of her friends, watching the action. Notice some of them brought little blankets to keep warm while they were watching. I wondered if they came prepared, or if they always carry around baby blankets!??


Elijah on the other hand is a different story. It seems the older the boys get, the more they want their experiment to fail...and in a BIG way! He got a gatorade bottle, cut it open, filled it up with water, put the egg in, ducttaped it back together, and put the lid on. It was good to go. The funny thing, is by morning his egg was already cracked. He said he put the cold egg in warm water...that must of done the trick. Anyways, he wasn't too concerned about it...cause he wasn't hoping to save his egg. (notice the beautiful brown egg?)


Jeremy saved Elijah's egg until last. Held it up so I could video tape...which I failed miserably at...and threw it down towards the ground...like I mentioned earlier, from 95 feet above. I heard kids all around saying, 'Elijah, your dad threw your egg!' and Elijah excitedly said, 'I know!'. it was funny. His egg made the splash he was hoping for (which I somehow didn't get on film). So, both of the kids walked away feeling very satisfied about the whole ordeal.

It was great fun. I am glad J was able to attend and help out.
There were some interesting eggs that survived. a bowl full of Jello, also dyed the egg. the bowl didn't survive the fall, but the egg amazingly did....and there was jello splattered everywhere, which was a nice touch. Someone, just put an egg in a bag, with 2 parachutes...and the egg survived. I am not sure how they made their parachutes work better than Kas' but, it was amazing. Another kid put the egg in water in a quart ziplock. I think his splat was almost as good as Elijah's. He gave out a big cheer when his splatted, so I think he was in the same type of thinking as Elijah! One year Kas put her's in a stuffed animal. Anyway, it was fun!

4 comments:

FreeFamWorld said...

So glad this tradition continues! One year someone put theirs in a box of Fruit Loops. And it popped open and splatted all over, after making a sickening 'thud'. Funny that they're getting creative on how to make the egg break now!

Rachel said...

We've done this! One year, they used a helicopter! Totally cool... I don't remember why they did it that way tho'

Wendy said...

Sounds like a fun experiment. Especially since Jeremy was involved.

Lori said...

Way cool! I wish I had been able to do that! So good to see you guys again. I loved your blog about Grandpa Ralph too--thanks.