Alexandra Montalvo, 5th period, September 11, 2014

Did My Egg Survive the Egg Drop Lab?

Objective: The student will utilize critical thinking and decision-making skills to construct a protective covering for an egg that is lightweight and durable.  The students will implement the scientific method to develop their design, construct their container, and complete the laboratory experiment. 

Materials list:
1. Plastic container 
2. Cotton balls 
3. Egg

Sketch/Initial Design:

 

 

Steps:

1. Take the lid off
2. Fill half of the container with cotton balls
3. Put the egg in the middle of the of the container
4. Put the cotton balls on top of the egg
5. Fill in any empty spaces with cotton balls (if needed)
6. Secure the lid tightly
7. Toss egg and see if it breaks

Data:
The mass of the structure with the egg was 140 grams. I plugged 2,000/142 in the calculator and I got 14. Then I multiplied that by 10 and got 140, which was the mass.

Overall Grade:
The overall grade of my egg drop lab was a 71 which is a C-.

Test Drop #1:
I did the first test at home and it was perfectly fine. It did not break at home when I tossed it. I was outside and I gave it a little toss but it did not break. I am guessing it broke because I gave it a small toss and the impact from the ground was no that hard.

 *My design looked somewhat like this*

Test Drop #2:
When I got to school and did my project in front of Ms. Janik, it ended up breaking. This time the egg broke because the toss had a good impact on the floor. I was hoping it would not break but it did. She tossed it very high in the air and when it hit the floor, the egg did not seem to stay in place. The problem was that I did not throw it as hard as she did.

 

 

Post Lab Questions:

1. My final design was basically a container that you would hold food in. I put cotton ball at the bottom of the plastic container and out the egg in the middle. Afterwards, I put more cotton balls on top and on the sides of the egg. All I used was just a plastic container and some cotton balls.

 2. The design was modified from my initial hypothesis to improve my results by taking out some cotton balls so that the egg will not be so tight in the container. For example, the egg will have room to bounce on the cotton balls.

3. The purpose of having multiple test drops of my structure was to make an observation to see if it breaks or not. Also to test my hypothesis to see if it was correct or incorrect. Therefore, if it was incorrect I would of had to change my design.

4. My structure for this lab broke because I did not have that much of a good design. Also it broke because I did not cover every corner with the cotton balls. I left some space for the egg in the container. I thought it was going to work but my hypothesis was wrong.

5. If I could change my design in any way, I would change the structure of the egg so that it would not have broke. I would put it in way so that egg would not have broke. Also I would have made the egg a little more in place instead of it just sitting in the container. I would have made something that could hold the egg tightly in the structure.

 

Final Design:



I stuck with the same structure that I had in the beginning.