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NC Science Olympiad

Trajeggtory

Division: A – Elementary School

NC Essential Standards Alignment: Science as Inquiry

Event Rules and Score Sheets: See 2023 Division A Rule Manual

Clarifications: 

Event leaders will provide the egg and a snack bag (6.50in Width x 3.25in Length) that the egg must go in. The snack bag with the egg inside MUST be able to fit into the device for competition day. 

The device will be measured from where the egg containing device comes to rest.  Not where it first hits.

Description:

Teams will bring with them a device constructed out of specified materials to protect a raw egg from breaking when tossed over a bar or barrier and allowed to fall to the floor or pavement.  The goal is to keep the egg from cracking or breaking during its impact with the floor or pavement.  

Materials:

Teams must bring a fully-constructed device made from the following materials only:

Cups, plates, or bowls made from paper or Styrofoam, Rubber bands, Paper of any kind (recycling used homework sheets is encouraged!), Paper or plastic straws with or without wrappers, Cotton balls, Natural or synthetic fiberfill (i.e. Poly-fil), Packing peanuts, Bubble wrap, Plastic bags (baggies or plastic grocery bags), Tape (any kind), Standard cardboard tubes from toilet paper or paper towels (See rules for more details). 

They must also wear safety glasses.  Event leaders will provide raw Grade A Large chicken eggs, and plastic bags for the eggs (See rules for more details).

Scoring:

Teams will be placed in tiers according to whether the egg breaks and then ranked by the distance from the target. The shortest distance wins. Ties will be broken by the lightest mass of the device.

Tier 1: Egg Survives the toss with NO competition violations.
Tier 2: Egg breaks on the toss and/or device has competition violations.

Recommendations:

  • If you hold an egg between your palms short ways, when you squeeze it it will break. If you hold it long ways and squeeze, you probably can’t break it. Eggs are stronger long ways, so try to orient it in your device so it will land top or bottom first. This is a great classroom demonstration, but demo it over a trashcan with safety glasses and a trash bag with a neck hole cut in it to be used as an apron just in case your egg has a weak spot.
  • The USDA has defined a large chicken egg to be 60 g (+/- 3 g) averaged by the dozen.
  • To practice your accuracy without the mess, use a plastic easter egg filled with enough paperclips, clay, or other mass to equal 60g.
  • To test if a raw egg will survive impact without the mess, place the egg inside a sandwich baggie before loading it into the device.
  • Part of the strategy in this event will be building something that can be easily opened after the toss to check if the egg has survived.

Event Resources:

Egg Drop Experiment

Media:

None