Fifth-grader Jonathan Powell holds up his cracked but intact egg that was dropped from the Evergreen Elementary School roof on March 27. Several students participated in the project by wrapping their eggs in packing materials and containers to keep them from breaking.
Josh Blatchley drops containers protecting eggs off the school cafeteria roof on March 27.
Since the dawn of humankind, people have dropped stuff. And since that time, we've tried to figure out how to keep dropped stuff from breaking. Just look at cell phone cases.
On March 27, students in the migrant education program continued the tradition by holding an egg drop. One by one, school district facilities and maintenance manager Josh Blatchley dropped 11 eggs from the Evergreen Elementary cafeteria roof.
Fortunately, each fragile breakfast staple was encased in some form of protective covering to keep each egg intact. Unfortunately, only seven out of the 11 survived, despite the many layers of packing materials and tape the kids used.
The science project was part of Migrant Monday, a weekly afterschool program from 2:30 to 3:15 p.m. for preschool through fifth-grade students. It's used as a way for families of migrant students "to be more involved with their children's peer groups," said Holly Padilla, the migrant education program teacher.
The egg drop project was a way for students to problem solve, she said. Kids had 50 minutes and a room full of materials to figure out how to keep their eggs from prematurely hatching.
According to Padilla, there was "a lot of cardboard, plastic containers, rubber bands, tape, Popsicle sticks, yarn, napkins, ribbon, packing peanuts, bubble wrap" and other materials the students had available. They worked on their egg encasements on two Mondays, March 20 and March 27, with the eggs falling to safety or demise on the second Monday.
"A few students whipped theirs up in the 20 minutes they had (on March 27) since they missed last week," she said.
The protective units ranged from bundles of plastic packing material with the egg nestled deep in the center to small food containers. One even used a parachute.
Students watched as the eggs were let go over the side of the building like a baby bird kicked out of the nest before it's ready. Some bounced. Some landed with a thud.
But it was all in the name of science and fun with no grades attached.
"(It was) simply the fulfillment of free play and experimenting with materials," Padilla said. "I observed so many excellent discussions between the students, collaboration and feedback to each other."
She said during the work building their egg cases, students were intent and focused and showed respect for each other's projects.
"I look forward to doing more with them this spring," she said.
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