egg drop assignment physics

Egg Drop Project

This is the classic egg drop experiment. Students try to build a structure that will prevent a raw egg from breaking when dropped from a significant height. They should think about creating a design that would reduce the amount of energy transferred from potential to kinetic energy on the egg shell. Some ways to do this would be to decrease the final speed of the egg using air resistance, increasing the time of the collision using some sort of cushion, transferring the energy into something else, or whatever else they can think of!

Each group of students gets the following:

• 2 small paper cups
• 1 sq ft of cellophane
• 4 rubberbands
• 4 popsickle sticks
• 2 ft of tape
• 1 egg (not provided)

Subjects Covered

• Energy Conservation

Provided by requester

• One egg for each student group
• Floor covering (Ex: Newspaper, Tarp)

Provided by us

• Small paper cups
• Rubberbands
• Popsickle sticks

Physics Behind the Demo

The Egg hitting the ground is a collision between the Earth and the Egg. When collisions occur, two properties of the colliding bodies are changed and/or transferred: their Energy and Momentum . This change and transfer is mediated by one or many forces . If the force is too strong, it can cause the shell of the egg to crack and break.

Momentum Transfer and Impulse (no Calculus)

Starting with the definition of Force a and knowing that acceleration is just the change in velocity over the change in time

$$ \textbf{F}=ma=m\cdot{\frac{\Delta v}{\Delta t}} $$

If we move the $\Large \Delta t $ to the left side of the equation we can see how Force is related to momentum

$$ \textbf{F} \cdot{\Delta t}=m \cdot{\Delta v}$$

This means that the Force multiplied by the change in time, or duration of a collision, is equal to the mass multiplied by the change in velocity. Momentum (p) is defined as the mass multiplied by the velocity so the right side is the change in momentum. This change in momentum is the Impulse ( J )

$$ \textbf{J}= \textbf{F} \cdot{\Delta t}=\Delta \textbf{p}$$

a: In this case we are actually talking about the average force, but to keep things simple we will just call it the force.

Momemtum Transfer and Impulse (Calculus)

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Egg Drop Lab

Students work in teams to design a container for an egg using provided materials. Students drop their containers, then analyze factors which can minimize force on the egg.

Optionally, students can complete a second round of the experiment if time permits. Students work in teams to design a container for an egg using provided materials.

Lesson Files

• Egg Drop Guidelines (.docx)
• Explore Momentum and Impact Force in an Egg Drop (.docx)
• Explore Momentum and Impact Force in an Egg Drop (.pptx)

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Additional DCIs in This Strand

Materials needed for this lesson plan.

• Straws, set of 250
• Bag of Cotton Balls
• Popsicle Craft Sticks (100 pieces)
• Scotch Tape
• Gallon Ziplock Bags

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26 Egg-cellent Egg Drop Challenge Ideas

Teaching STEM one broken egg at a time.

The egg drop may be the most versatile activity there is. It can be done in kindergarten to teach about gravity, in middle school to teach engineering, and in high school physics. (We’ve even done the egg drop in professional development as a team-building activity). These 26 egg drop ideas take the challenge far beyond basic.

1. Disaster egg drop

Have students imagine that they are trying to deliver eggs to people who have been in a disaster. They must use contents from care packages to pack and try to deliver their eggs. The focus of this egg drop is on the change from potential to kinetic energy and how energy moves when it impacts the ground.

Try it: Care Package Egg Drop at Teach Engineering

2. Parachute egg drop

Looking for tried-and-true ideas for the parachute egg drop method? Give students a variety of materials—straws, Popsicle sticks, paper, bags—and see who can make a parachute that helps the egg float instead of splat.

Try it: Egg Parachutes at JDaniels4mom.com

3. Humpty Dumpty drop

First, decorate an egg like Humpty Dumpty (smiley face, overalls). Then, fill baggies with different materials like water beads, sand, pasta, and cotton balls. Drop Humpty in and see which material protects him the best.

Try it: Humpty Dumpty Drop at I Heart Crafty Things

4. Hot-air balloon egg drop

Connect a “basket” to a balloon with yarn and see whether or not the balloon will float gently enough so the egg doesn’t break. You may try this in different types of weather to see what happens to the balloon and egg when it’s windy or not.

Try it: Gravity Drop at Science Sparks

5. Crash cart egg race

In this version of an egg drop, build a cart for an egg, then send each egg down a ramp or course to see if the cart will protect the egg. ADVERTISEMENT

6. Cereal egg drop

Another lesson in how energy gets absorbed. Place an egg in a can, and surround the can with a soft cereal, like puffed rice.

Try it: Cereal Egg Drop on Pinterest

7. Dodecahedron egg drop

Create a dodecahedron out of straws, place an egg in the middle, and drop it. Will the straw structure protect the egg enough for it not to break? Bonus: Students learn about geometry and dodecahedrons.

Try it: Straw Egg Drop at Sciencing

8. Styrofoam cup egg drop

Use Styrofoam cups to create a stack around the egg. Place a heavy rock in the bottom of the first cup (the rock should be heavier than the egg). Then, put six more cups on top, put the egg into the seventh cup, and cover the stack with the eighth. Tape the stack together and drop.

Try it: Styrofoam Egg Drop at Educational Insights

9. Rubber band suspension egg drop

Suspend an egg using rubber bands and pantyhose for protection. Will the egg bounce and wiggle or crack on impact?

10. Paper straws egg drop

Sometimes having limited materials brings out students’ creativity. Give students nothing but an egg, paper, and scissors, and see what they can come up with.

Try it: Paper Egg Drop at iGameMom

11. Pringles can egg drop

A Pringles can is the perfect size and shape to protect an egg. Use cushioning and pencils to hold the egg in place.

12. Sponge egg drop

Cut a hole in the middle of a sponge and fit the egg into the hole. Then, use straws and tape to secure the egg and see if the sponge will soften the blow.

Try it: Sponge Egg Drop at Green Kid Crafts

13. Paper bag parachute

Looking for more ideas that incorporate parachutes in your egg drop challenge? Place the egg in a red Solo cup with some cushioning (shredded paper, cotton). Then, attach a plastic bag to the cup and launch it in a place where the wind can catch the bag.

Try it: Plastic Bag Parachute Egg Drop at There’s Just One Mommy

14. Toilet paper and duct tape egg drop

Tuck an egg into a roll of toilet paper, pack with cotton balls, and cover with duct tape. You could use this strategy to drop the egg, or roll it down an obstacle course.

15. Oobleck-wrapped egg challenge

For a mult-step approach, make oobleck and cover the egg in oobleck. Then, put the egg in a cup that includes a soft packing material (mini-marshmallows, cotton balls). Cover the top with plastic wrap or tape and get ready to drop.

16. Ship egg drop

Give students a collection of materials and challenge them to make ships to protect their eggs. Some materials:

• Popsicle sticks or tongue depressors
• Rubber bands
• Pipe cleaners
• Cotton balls
• Sandwich bags

Try it: Ship Egg Drop at Cool Science Dad

17. Pool noodle egg drop

What can’t you do with pool noodles? Cut pool noodles into parts and use duct tape, rubber bands, and other materials to create soft, spongy pods for eggs.

Try it: Pool Noodle Egg Drop at Steam Powered Family

18. Toilet paper roll egg drop

Use toilet paper rolls as pillars to support and protect an egg, then use a sponge and rubber bands to hold it together. The big question with this egg drop is whether it will float down or crash.

Try it: Toilet Paper Egg Drop at Science Struck

19. Water bag egg drop

What happens if you put eggs in a bag full of water? Have students hypothesize whether the eggs will break based on how much water is in the bag.

Try it: Water Bag Egg Drop at Oregon State University

20. Reinforcement egg drop

Talk about what it means to reinforce an object, then provide students with different ways to reinforce an egg in boxes or jars (or jars and boxes).

Try it: Reinforcement Egg Drop at Living Digitally

21. Floam-covered egg

Cover an egg in floam and see if it provides enough cushioning to break the fall. If you don’t have floam, you can also try kinetic sand, play dough, or anything that will cover the egg and absorb the impact.

Try it: Floam Egg Drop at Momtastic

22. Peanut butter jar egg drop

Tuck an egg in a peanut butter jar, pack it with tissues, and secure in a box.

Try it: Peanut Butter Jar Egg Drop at Momtastic

23. Balloon bomb egg drop

Surround the egg in balloons filled with beads to provide a softer landing.

24. Another balloon bomb

Hollow out a floral foam disc and tuck the egg inside. Then, add balloons to soften the landing.

Try it: Balloon Bomb Egg Drop at The Caffeinated Homeschoolista

25. Bungee egg drop

This activity isn’t an egg drop, per say. Students use rubber bands to create a bungee jump for an egg and predict how many rubbers bands they will need for the egg to drop a certain length (maybe six feet). For students who are well versed in the egg drop, this is a fun spin on the idea.

Try it: Bungee Egg Drop at Museum of Science and Industry

26. Backyard egg drop

Looking for ideas to make the egg drop project more challenging? Ask students to find materials in nature—sticks, leaves, an abandoned bird’s nest—to create their egg drop structures.

Try it: Nature Egg Drop at Dream Big at Home

If you like these egg drop challenge ideas and want more articles like this,  be sure to subscribe to our newsletters.

Plus, check out 50 stem activities to help kids think outside the box ..

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Activity Length

45 mins. (20 min. for drop), forces and motion, activity type, exploration.

In this exploration, students design, evaluate, test, and suggest improvements for a container that will protect their precious payload: an egg.

The Classic "Egg-Drop" experiment has been a standard in science instruction for many years. Essentially, students are asked to construct some type of container that will keep a raw egg from cracking when dropped from ever-increasing elevations.

There are three basic ways to increase the likelihood of safely dropping an egg:

• Slow down the descent speed . Parachutes are an obvious method for slowing the decent speed, as long as the design includes a way to keep the parachute open.
• Cushion the egg so that something other than the egg itself absorbs the impact of landing. The largest end of the egg has an area of air trapped between the egg's two membranes. This air space forms when the contents of the egg cool and contract after the egg is laid. It accounts for the crater you often see at the end of a hard-cooked egg. Upon impact the heavier spherical yolk continues moving towards the ground. The compression of the airspace acts like an air bag for the eggs' valuable contents. Building an artificial cushioning device will also help absorb the impact of landing. The largest end of the egg has an area of air trapped between the egg's two membranes. This air space forms when the contents of the egg cool and contract after the egg is laid. It accounts for the crater you often see at the end of a hard-cooked egg. Upon impact the heavier spherical yolk continues moving towards the ground. The compression of the airspace acts like an air bag for the eggs' valuable contents. Building an artificial cushioning device will also help absorb the impact of landing.
• Orient the egg so that it lands on the strongest part of the shell. The arch structure at either end of the egg is stronger than its sides. Pressure is distributed down (or up) the arches so that less pressure acts on any one point. Orienting the arch downwards will increase the egg's survival.

The Challenge: On August 22, 1994, David Donoghue threw an egg out of a helicopter onto a golf course in the UK, from a height of 213 meters (700 feet). He now has the record for the longest egg drop without breaking in the world (all without an outside structure for added protection!).

Teacher Tip: You can relate the activity to the challenge NASA scientists had in building a lander for the Mars Exploration Rover. Physically, it had to withstand both the heat of entry into the Martian atmosphere and the impact of landing. Strategically, they also had to figure out a way that the rover could right itself no matter how it landed. Students love to see how the structure they've built often resembles the one conceived by NASA scientists.

Demonstrate curiosity and show inventiveness.

Brainstorm in a team to generate ideas.

Use problem-solving strategies in building simple structures.

Per Class: large plastic sheet/tarp/vinyl tablecloth ladder (optional)

Per Group of 2–3 students: 1 extra-large egg 1 bag of materials (may include cardboard cup, string, tape, balloons, straws, etc.) 2 sheets of scrap paper and 2 pencils

Key Questions

• What was successful/unsuccessful in your design?
• What makes an egg a good ‘subject’ for the drop experiments?

Preparation:

• Scout out accessible locations around the school for the egg drop at different heights.
• Make enough bags of materials for student groups.

Exploration:

• Challenge the students (in teams of 2–3) to build a structure in 40 minutes that will prevent an egg from breaking when dropped from a high place. Brainstorm ways to increase the likelihood of safely landing their eggs.
• Each group gets a bag of materials, 2 pencils, and 2 sheets of scrap paper.
• The students cannot assemble anything for the first 10 minutes. This time is to be used to brainstorm and to draw a mockup of their structure on the scrap paper provided.
• When the 10 minutes is up, circulate around the class to ensure that the students have thoughtfully mocked up their landers.
• Place the eggs in individual egg holders and hand out to the teams. Remind students that they cannot use the egg holder as part of their design.
• Drop the eggs from a launch point into the drop zone, which is protected by a plastic sheet, ensuring that each lander is dropped from the same distance.
• Once dropped, the students check out the egg to see if it has broken or if there are any cracks.
• The team whose egg survives the highest drop wins.

Teacher tips 

• The teacher should be the one to launch the eggs to ensure fairness and to reduce the risk of injury (if dropping from a high distance).
• Many of the supplies in this activity can be collected and reused!
• How would you modify your design to make it better? Present your revised mock-up to the class.
• Assign prices to each craft item and give students a budget. Students come to the “store” with their designs and the teacher hands out the materials they’ve requested.
• Show the students the Mars Exploration Rover landing video .

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Michelle is a designer with a focus on creating joyful digital experiences! She enjoys exploring the potential forms that an idea can express itself in and helping then take shape.

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From Canada, Ty was born in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1993. From his chaotic workspace he draws in several different illustrative styles with thick outlines, bold colours and quirky-child like drawings. Ty distils the world around him into its basic geometry, prompting us to look at the mundane in a different way.

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Amazing & Graceful Egg Drop Contraption

Introduction: Amazing & Graceful Egg Drop Contraption

Step 1: Materials

Step 2: Assemble the Body

Step 3: Assemble the Rotors

Step 4: Cut Out and Attach the Blades

Step 5: Putting It All Together

Step 6: Finishing Touches

Step 7: Drop Time!

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90 Minutes | 3rd – 12th Grades

Egg drop devices simulate parachutes and other similar features seen in nature, such as the helicopter seeds that are dropped from some trees. The process of slowing descent to resist the force of gravity has been used in a number of instances in history, and continues to be an important science – especially currently around emergency aid and transportation of goods to inaccessible areas.

Lesson Plan: Lesson Plan – Egg Drop

Handouts: Egg Drop Handout Reverse Egg Drop Handout Egg Drop Checklist

Presentation: Egg Drop + Brain Injuries Egg Drop Prezi Reverse Egg Drop Prezi

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March 2, 2016 By Chelsey

STEM for Kids: Egg Drop Project

Have you tried the egg drop project yet? This was our 4th year in a row taking part this super fun STEM activity for kids! Check out how to do it with your children or students, and be sure to print out our two free printable recording sheets.

Follow our STEM and STEAM Activities for Kids Pinterest board!

The kids always look forward to the annual egg drop project ! If you’re unfamiliar with this popular STEM activity, the challenge is for kids to design a contraption using various materials (usually recyclables) to protect a raw egg from a high fall.

Be sure to check out our previous egg drop challenges for tips and ideas:

• Egg Drop Challenge 2018
• Egg Drop Challenge 2016
• Egg Drop Challenge 2015
• Egg Drop Challenge 2014
• Egg Drop Challenge 2013

Although this activity is most popular in high school physics classes, we’ve adapted it for elementary aged children and have done it with my husband’s 4th grade class for years in a row. (You can even do it with preschool aged children!)

Egg Drop Project

Kids were instructed to bring in materials from home for their egg contraptions. This year we changed the rules up a bit and eliminated a few materials the kids usually use in their egg contraptions- no boxes and no battery powered items.

After collecting materials over a few days, students were able to work independently, in pairs or in small groups to design a contraption to protect their raw egg.

They recored their designs on our free printable recording sheet .

After constructing their contraptions, the class examined all the other egg containers created.

They recorded their predictions on which contraptions would work using our free printable egg drop challenge recording sheet .

They then took their contraptions outside to test them out. My husband climbed onto the school roof with all the egg containers and dropped them one at at time. Since this is the highest we’ve done the egg drop challenge compared to years past, there were quite a few broken eggs this time!

The students discussed why certain contraptions did or did not work.

Be sure to check out STEAM Kids book and ebook for even more creative STEM and STEAM ideas!

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• Science Fair Project Ideas for Kids, Middle & High School Students ⋅

Successful Egg Drop Ideas

How to Design an Egg Drop Experiment Using Straws

Egg drop projects teach students to use logic and teamwork to protect their eggs from a fall. There are a variety of ways to conduct an egg drop. Begin by explaining the process and handing out eggs to the students. Set the parameters of your egg drop and a deadline when your students must be ready to drop their eggs or go bust.

Container Designs

Many successful egg drop designs use sturdy containers to protect the contents from the initial shock of the drop. These hard containers may be plastic food containers or cardboard boxes. But the hard container alone is not enough to protect the egg completely. The container needs padding inside. Styrofoam, sponges, cotton balls, bubble wrap or even wadded newspaper can all make good padding inside the container. Give your students time to practice with a variety of materials before dropping their eggs.

Straw Designs

Straws have firm walls around an empty space. The firm walls act like the sturdy container, while the empty space provides shock absorption for the egg. Build a shape around the egg with the straws. Hold the straws in place with tape. Add padding between the straws and the egg. Another way to use straws is to design a framework that suspends the egg during the drop. The frame absorbs the shock, preventing the egg from coming in contact with the surface.

Plastic Bag Designs

A hard shell is not the only way to protect an egg during an egg drop. Plastic bags are less of a shell, but they provide a structure to hold padding material around the egg. Add padding such as foam, bubble wrap or packing peanuts between the egg and the side of a small plastic bag. Place the small bag into a medium-sized bag and add more padding around the small bag. Place both bags into a large plastic bag with additional padding around the medium bag.

Alternative Designs

Try limiting your class to specific groups of materials such as ensuring that all padding is edible. Try using cereals such as puffed rice or wheat as padding. Fruit is another option. Use grapes, cherry tomatoes or orange wedges between the egg and the side of the box or container. The fluid-filled cells work in a similar way to the air-filled bladders of bubble wrap. Consider that the egg must drop but is not required to hit the ground. Insert the egg into panty hose or attach an egg-protecting container to a bungee cord to prevent the egg from hitting the ground. Suspend your egg from a helium-filled balloon or build a glider to deliver your egg to the ground.

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About the Author

Based in Nashville, Shellie Braeuner has been writing articles since 1986 on topics including child rearing, entertainment, politics and home improvement. Her work has appeared in "The Tennessean" and "Borderlines" as well as a book from Simon & Schuster. Braeuner holds a Master of Education in developmental counseling from Vanderbilt University.

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