I vaguely remember an assignment from high school where we were asked to build a device to hold an egg that would withstand the force of impact when it was dropped from a series of heights. You can imagine my surprise, when my first grader came home with the same assignment.  It was great fun for me to be able to relive it through MaGill. I did mention MaGill’s in first grade, didn’t I?  Not High School!  Not Junior High!  Not Middle School.  He’s a first grader in elementary school completing the same assignment I did 100 years ago in high school.

We started hearing about the assignment long before the day of the event arrived.  He had certain dimensions and criteria he had to consider.  This was serious business.  Gilly was making drawings, designing his ‘contraption,’ and making material lists a few weeks before in order to get it ‘just right.’

Daddy helped with some cutting and taping, but it was his design, and he wasn’t having anyone tell him what to do.

When the day of the big drop arrived, it was great fun to check out some of the other designs and the materials used.

This was one of my students last year.  He had hollowed out a Neft ball

and packed it in marshmallows before placing it in a box.I was amazed at the diversity of designs  . . . and all from 1st graders.

Another one of MaGill’s friend had this open-ended box that used rubberbands to help the egg sustain the force of the fall.  So cool, huh?

The first step in getting started was distributing and packing the eggs.

They had to be placed in ‘just so.’

The initial drop was at MaGill’s teacher, Mr. Helsel’s, waist height.

Some made it

and others didn’t.

Things got more interesting each time the height increased.

 

The anticipation of whether their design would survive the fall was excruciating.

The mid-ladder fall   . . .

and then then roof top fall . . .

. . . would it survive?

I’m not sure . . .

maybe . . .

YES!!!

As a parent, I can’t tell you how fun it was to watch all these little ones anticipating the success of their designs.  They cheered each other on, made notes for future design changes in their notebooks and learned so much from this fun activity.  I know how much I enjoyed a glimpse into another teacher’s classroom.  I thought I just had to share it with you all, too.