Academic Fair: Interests and Inquiries Fair: Egg Drop Contest

Home Page

About the Fair

About the Egg-Drop Contest

Fair Rules

Registration

Types of Projects

Choose a Topic

Develop a Question

Answer the Question

Present at the Fair

Schedule for Day of Fair

Frequently Asked Questions

Links

Calling All Humpty Dumpty Heroes!

Can you figure out how to drop an egg from a three-story window without letting it crack? Then why not design an egg-drop vehicle and try it out at next year's Irving School Egg Drop Contest?

On the day of the 2008 Academic Fair, we staged an egg-drop at Irving School. More than 50 students, Kindergarten through 5th grade, designed vehicles to protect a raw egg as it fell from the second-floor landing (a 2 1/2 story fall). Nearly the entire school came out to the blacktop to watch and cheer on the eggs and their protectors. The Oak Leaves newspaper produced a streaming video of the event, which you can see by clicking here.

A few rules for we used for the Egg-Drop Contest vehicles:

You may work with one or more partners.
The vehicle must fit out a window 22 inches high by 22 inches wide.
The vehicle must be dropped or launched by hand.
No motors, rockets, helium or hot-air balloons, or lowering by ropes. (Regular-air-filled balloons and parachutes are OK.
We provided the raw eggs. No eggs brought from home. That means we have to be able to open your vehicle and place the egg inside right before we drop it.

Looking for ideas for your own egg-drop vehicle? Check out these websites:

This web page includes links to photos of many different designs:
< http://www.mse.arizona.edu/faculty/birnie/EngrsWk/EggDrop.htm >

This design is based on the Mars Pathfinder vehicle.
< http://www.amnh.org/rose/mars/eggdrop.html >

These designs were inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's work
< http://www.niemworks.com/else/eggdrop.html >

Registration forms for next year's Irving Egg Drop will be available in February, 2009.