Find materials around your house and use them to build a device to protect the egg! Then drop the device from a one metre height and see what happens! Send photos or video of your successful creations to questions@tnrd.ca so that we can share them!
What you’ll need:
- Egg
- Paper towel
- Whatever supplies you think might work!
- Find or create an area where it will be okay if the egg does break!
As this is a science experiment, you’ll want to follow the proper Scientific Method. For more details on the Scientific Method, you can check out this article from the Khan Academy: The Scientific Method.
Step one is to: Make an observation. We’ve already done this for you!
“Eggs break when you drop them from a height of one metre.”
Step two, we’ve also completed: Ask a question.
“What kind of device will stop an egg from breaking when I drop it from a height of one metre?”
Step three is where you come in: Form a hypothesis, or testable explanation.
Now is the time to plan your device. Think about why the egg breaks when it hits the ground, and what kinds of things you could do to stop this from happening.
You may want to log in to our ScienceFlix database and check out their article on “Free Fall”. You’ll need your library card to login, and then you’ll need to search “Free Fall”. What kinds of forces are acting on your egg?
Step Four: Make a prediction based on the hypothesis.
Your prediction will probably be “If I drop an egg from a 1 metre height in this device, it will not break!”
Which brings us to Step Five: Test the prediction. Time to go drop that egg! *Science can be messy, so you may want to try dropping the egg outside.
Did your egg survive? Hooray! Send us a pic or a video to share your triumph.
If it didn’t, go on to Step Six: Iterate: use the results to make new hypotheses or predictions. Part of the fun of science is making mistakes and then figuring out how to fix them. You may have to try many different types of device (and break a few eggs) before you find a hypothesis that works.
It took us a few tries before we came up with a successful device. See our final product below! We can’t wait to see what YOU come up with.