The Seymour Middle School Sixth Grade Center playground was packed with eager kids and a firetruck as students tested out how high an egg can fall from the sky without breaking.
Students were tasked by science teacher Natalie Smith to create devices that would protect an egg from breaking when it hit the ground. The eggs were originally going to be dropped from the top of a 10-foot ladder.
When special education teacher Joseph Burnette got word about the project, he came up with an idea to up the stakes.
After learning the eggs were only going to be dropped 10 feet from the ground because Smith only had a 10-foot ladder, Burnette promptly called the Seymour Fire Department to see if they could bring a firetruck.
Two days later, the fire department called Burnette back wanting to know when to show up.
“We picked Wednesday, and it happened to be the best weather of the week,” he said.
Most of the eggs were dropped from a ladder on the firetruck from 40 feet. If the firefighters were confident in a student’s design, the ladder was raised to 100 feet. Burnette said two or three students had their designs drop from the 100-foot height, and none of them broke.
“Some of them fell and exploded,” he said. “The playground is definitely going to smell worse for a while.”
Student Camaria Copeland said her egg fell to the ground without a single crack from 100 feet.
Her design involved putting the egg in a sponge within a cup filled with tissue inside of a box with gloves that were aired up to provide a cushion.
“I was surprised because my friends were like, ‘It’s not going to survive,’ and I was like, ‘Yes it is,'” Copeland said.
Mia Arrona’s egg also survived the 100-foot drop. Her design involved parachuting an egg from inside a plastic bag filled with sponges, tissue paper and cotton balls.
She said she wouldn’t make any changes to her design if she was to do it again.
“Because then you would know that it wouldn’t break,” she said.