The Great Egg Drop
Fellow(s): Ryan Conversano & Fernando Olmos
Grade Level: 8 – 12
Subject(s): Physics
Summary:
This lesson will focus on an egg drop project. The purpose of the lesson is to understand
the forces acting on a falling object, as well as the conservation of momentum. The lesson
will focus on the acceleration due to and the force of gravity, air resistance, impulse, and
Newton’s Laws of motion. A short presentation involving acceleration, forces, momentum,
and the exchange of potential and kinetic energy will be given before the egg drop project
begins. The students will then design their egg drop vehicles and build them. After the egg
drop, we will total the number of eggs that survived from each school to determine which
class managed to build the best crash-landing egg vehicles.
Time Required: 3 class periods (~50 min. each)
Group Size: 2 students
Cost to implement: Under $60 per school, plus student-provided egg cartons, plastic bags,
and newspaper.
Learning Goals:
After this lesson, students should:
1. Understand Newton’s Laws of Motion
2. Understand how Newton’s Laws apply to an egg drop activity
3. Identify the accelerations and forces involved during the egg’s descent and impact
Level of Inquiry:
The students will then be given a set list of 10+ materials to choose from and must design
an egg drop vehicle. Neither Fernando nor I will build or show examples of egg drop
vehicles to promote creativity and reduce copying of a “teacher provided” design. The
students will be allowed to only select 4 materials from the list provided and must develop
a drawn design of their egg drop vehicle before beginning construction. This forces the
students to develop a thorough and well planned vehicle before building. Lastly, as a wrap
up, we will ask the students what materials made the best vehicles and why, along with
identification of the forces acting on the egg, allowing them to reflect on the project.
Introduction / Motivation:
This activity should be introduced with relevant current events involving “real-life egg
drops.” Examples used for this presentation included the Spirit and Opportunity Mars
rover descent and landing and the record-breaking free fall jump performed by Felix
Baumgartner and sponsored by Red Bull (web links provided below). In short, the
students need to understand that egg drop-like activities are performed in the real world
frequently, especially in science fields. This gives them more motivation for performing the
activity as well as ideas for their egg drop vehicles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_9BYSDtwRc (start @ 2:20)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHtvDA0W34I
Lesson Background Concepts for Teachers:
This lesson focuses on Newton’s Laws of Motion, acceleration, and forces. It is assumed
that these topics have been introduced to the students as this activity provides a means to
test their understanding of the material while allowing them to apply it.
Procedure:
The students will be divided into groups of 3. Each group will be given a worksheet with
the list of all available materials and a blank area with a picture of an egg. They will then
select the 4 materials they wish to use for their egg drop vehicle and draw a cross section
design of the vehicle. This will show the different layers of egg protection for later analysis.
Once completed, the students will be given a pre-determined amount of the 4 materials
they selected to build their egg drop vehicles. The vehicles will be limited in size to a 10”
sphere, measured with a wooden ring. Once the entire class has completed their designs,
the vehicles will be tested from a pre-determined height at both schools.
Materials List:
Each group may select only four (4) of the materials from the following list. Each material
is limited in quantity to encourage careful planning of the egg drop vehicle. Note that they
receive no additional materials (even if they forget to select an adhesive for their other
materials!):
1. Cotton balls (20)
2. Newspaper (2 sheets)
3. Printer paper (5 sheets)
4. Egg carton (6 cups, connected)
5. Plastic grocery bag (2)
6. Bendy straws (10)
7. Masking tape (3 meters)
8. Popsicle sticks (10)
9. Toilet paper (2 meters)
10. White glue (30 mL)
11. Rubber bands (10)
12. Water balloons (5, empty)
Safety Issues:
No students below egg drop vehicles as they are being dropped!
Lesson Closure:
Once the egg drop is completed, we will analyze the vehicle designs that resulted in
undamaged eggs. Discussions of how the forces were distributed away from the egg, how
the acceleration to the ground was reduced (i.e. parachutes), etc. Then, students will work
on a short worksheet to reinforce the physics involved in the egg drop. Lastly, the results of
the competition between Emerson and University High will be revealed.
Assessment:
Pre-Activity Assessment:
This lesson was presented as a means to solidify the concepts discussed above. No preactivity assessment was presented.
Activity Embedded Assessment:
During the presentation portion of the activity, the students were orally quizzed on the
concepts of Newton’s Laws, acceleration, and forces. Additionally, a worksheet was
provided for the students to design their egg drop vehicles, which allowed educators to
identify if students were considering every aspect of the egg drop vehicles free fall and
eventual ground impact. This worksheet is attached.
Post-Activity Assessment:
After the egg drop was completed, the students received a worksheet consisting of two egg
drop vehicle pictures with a variety of blank boxes and a word bank. The students were
expected to fill in each box with the appropriate key term (i.e. “gravity” or “air resistance”).
Additionally, a series of questions about Newton’s Laws and their relation to the egg drop
were incorporated in the worksheet. This worksheet is attached.
This lesson is based upon or modified from existing materials:
The outline for the MESA egg drop was consulted for general guidelines and possible rules,
but was heavily modified to fit within the time constraints and scope of our classes.
References:
[1] MESA Day Contest Rules 2012-2013, EggXpress – Packaged Eggdrop, University of
California Regents, http://mesa.ucop.edu/mesa_day_rules/ accessed on 10/08/2012.
[2]http://w3.shorecrest.org/~Lisa_Peck/Physics/syllabus/mechanics/momentum/eggdro
p/2011/lisa/eggdrop.html
[3] http://www.hcsb.k12.fl.us/ertt/studentsites/EP/coryb/physics.htm
[4] http://best.berkeley.edu/~mesa/cheer/classroom/eggdrop/lesson_01.html
[5] Hewitt, P. G., Conceptual Physics, Prentice Hall; 2002.
List CA Science Standards addressed:
1. Newton’s laws predict the motion of most objects. As a basis for understanding this
concept:
c. Students know how to apply the law F=ma to solve one-dimensional motion problems
that involve constant forces (Newton’s second law).
d. Students know that when one object exerts a force on a second object, the second
object always exerts a force of equal magnitude and in the opposite direction (Newton’s
third law).
e. Students know the relationship between the universal law of gravitation and the effect of
gravity on an object at the surface of Earth.
2. The laws of conservation of energy and momentum provide a way to predict and
describe the movement of objects. As a basis for understanding this concept:
d. Students know how to calculate momentum as the product mv.
e. Students know momentum is a separately conserved quantity different from energy.
f. Students know an unbalanced force on an object produces a change in its momentum.