Beacon eighth-graders succeed with Eggdrop designs

Beacon Middle School eighth-graders cooked up record-setting Eggdrop designs recently in science teacher Christopher Lenhart’s classes. The Eggdrop is a classic physics activity for middle schools, high schools, and colleges, and a fun way to experience kinetic energy firsthand. Each student was tasked with designing an apparatus that would protect a raw egg from destruction when it was dropped from various heights.

“This year I had one that topped them all, and when I say them all, I mean all 14 years that I have used this project,” Lenhart said. “Hunter Osborne had one of the best designs I have ever seen - and I could not even throw it! A parachute made of tape was so perfect that the wind coming up the building kept it from falling. I let go and it literally floated away!”

Hunter Osborne earned the inaugural Overall First Place Ever Award. Luke Smailer earned first place for the 2014-15 school year with a Lunar Lander-style design. “NASA would be proud,” said Lenhart. “And I am extremely proud of the thought and engineering skills that went into so many of these projects.”

The physics behind the Eggdrop project is simple: to combat the sudden stop of kinetic energy, which is energy in movement. Height influences the gravitational potential energy, which is transformed into the KE. The greater the GPE, the greater the KE.

Students were required to use only tape, rubber bands and straws in their construction. Then they tested the designs from different heights. “In the past, I have given different parameters in construction and have allowed different materials, but this year my focus was not only on the physics but the engineering,” Lenhart said. “Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics is an integral part of science, and I am trying to add that component at every opportunity. Next Generation Science Standards have a strong engineering component that is being added to our curriculum, as well.”

Each apparatus first had to survive a six-foot drop for credit, and any survivors then tried from the 15-foot mark. Those survivors then went to the top of the school’s gym, which is approximately 45 feet high. Appropriately for an egg project, a dozen survivors made it through to the final test. The students then voted on the best one based on engineering and creativity.