Even Good Eggs Break

By Emily Weil

9/09/09

Science Standard 1- The Nature

of Science and Technology

Indicator 4.1.6- Explain that even a good design may

fail even though steps are taken ahead of time to

reduce the likelihood of failure.

Taken from:

http://www.indianastandards.org/standardSummary.as

p?Subject=sci&Grade=4.

Activity Link:

http://www.indianastandards.org/files/sci/sci_4_1_6.pd

f.

Definitions

Evaluation- a judgment or examination.

Progressively- going forward or onward; moving up

Assemble- to put together; build

Design- to make a sketch of or plans for an idea.

Trial- a tentative or experimental action in order to ascertain results; experiment.

Taken from: Dictionary.com

Background Information

A famous example of a good design that still failed is

the Titanic.

The Titanic was called the “unsinkable” ship, but in

fact, it did sink. Due to the idea of it being

“unsinkable”, the Titanic did not have enough lifeboats

for all of her passengers. It is because of this tragic

incident that ships have certain safety requirements

now.

We learn from our mistakes and realize that even

“good planning” may leave something out.

Found at: http://www.titanic-online.com/.

Even Good Eggs Break

To do:

Each student is to design a protector device for an egg. The device is meant to protect the egg from breaking when dropped from various heights.

The eggs will be dropped from 4 different heights, and the students are expected to use materials from home to construct their devices.

-(The heights used during the trial run were 1 ft, 4 ft, from a balcony, and from a 12-ft ladder.)

Materials: What materials will you need to construct your protector

device for your egg?

Are they materials you can find around the house or

school?

What will your design look like?

Sketch a picture or diagram of it. (label what the different

parts are made of)

List the materials you used to build your egg protector.

____________________________________

____________________________________

____________________________________

____________________________________

____________________________________

_____________________________

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Draw your egg protection design.

-Label the parts of your sketch

-Sketch out a couple of designs,

And then think of which one will

Be most likely to work. (Use that

One for your Trial run)

Design 1

The egg was wrapped in saran wrap and surrounded

by a padding of napkins. A grocery bag functioned as

a parachute to slow the fall of the egg.

Design 2

Design 2 was the same as

Design 1, minus the

parachute. The parachute

was removed so I could

test whether the padding

inside was enough to

protect the egg by

absorbing the “shock” of

the fall.

Design 3

My dad created this design. The egg was surrounded by

balloons with only a layer of tape connecting them. The

second picture is a view from the balcony.

Plan Ahead and Perform a

Trial “Drop”!

Design 1 2 (#1 without the

parachute)

3

1 ft drop Made it Made it Made it

4 ft drop Made it Made it Made it

From balcony Made it Made it Made it

From 12 ft ladder Made it Made it Made it

(Example of chart that can be used: The blanks for the first design are

taken from the experimentation with the design I made)

Findings:

Which protector device kept the egg from breaking?

Although we had three different designs, all of them passed all four tests.

This is probably due to the fact that they all had a lot of material that was good at absorbing the shock of the fall.

The 3rd design had balloons that made the egg sort of float.

The 1st design had a parachute to catch wind and slow its decent.

The 2nd design was the same as the first, minus the parachute, but it still had plenty of material (saran wrap and napkins) that absorbed the shock of hitting the ground.

Conclusion:

What key ideas worked, and what should we keep in mind?

1) parachutes work, but are not necessary.

2) it’s good to have something to absorb the “shock” so it doesn’t break the egg inside.

3) egg size is a factor because smaller eggs have harder shells (won’t break as easily).

Perhaps to gain more information, there should have been another height that the eggs were dropped from, but due to lack of a higher place to drop them, we could not conduct further experimentation.