5th grade science project ideas

[mrsgus06]

I need some ideas, please. My dd has a sail project due called operation egg drop. Here are the rules:

Invent a package for a raw egg so it can be dropped without breaking from the upper story window of a tall building. You can package the egg in any way you wish, or attach things to it to slow its descent. However, you can't simply lower the egg on a string or a long stick. It must free fall to the ground.

She has placed an egg in a basket lined with bubble wrap and made a parachute out of a trash bag, but that seems too obvious. We are looking for different ideas to spruce it up a bit. Anyone? Thanks in advance!

 

[Megster]

I did this in my physics class. Someone put jello inside of the bubble wrap. I'm not sure if it actually worked, but it was pretty cool

 

[goodeats]

What about putting the egg inside a cushioned (by yourself with something like cotton) Easter egg. It will add another layer of protection.

 

[simba928]

We did this in 8th grade. A few people took a whole jar of peanut butter and stuck the egg in the middle. Most of them made it. I took a milk carton and took panty hose and put the egg inside the panty hose and tied the hose to the carton so that the egg was "floating" inside the milk carton. It didn't work.

 

[Talking Hands]

My daughter hollowed out a Nerf football and then put the egg in and restuffed to ball with what she took out. It worked from the 4th floor.

 

[Crazoo]

Some type of parachute and padding as the previous posters mentioned will work.

 

[grlpwrd]

I've seen everything from gutted out yet padded plush animals to airplanes with wings. I would really encourage your dd to do the work herself as this is an excellent way to engross her in science. I'm not saying that you are doing the work for her, of course.


Here are some ideas so you can spark her creativity:

http://www.niemworks.com/else/eggdrop.html

http://www.mse.arizona.edu/faculty/birnie/EngrsWk/EggDrop.htm

GL to her and tell her to have fun with it!

 

[mrsgus06]

[QUOTE=grlpwrdI would really encourage your dd to do the work herself as this is an excellent way to engross her in science. I'm not saying that you are doing the work for her, of course.


Thank you so much for the links! She has done all the work herself, but man, it really is a nice change from my 3rd graders project: a land form from SC . I have fought the urge all day not to make a bigger, better parachute with more bubble wrap, more string, more...everything . We will really start to work on it tomorrow as one of them just turned in this past Friday! I will help "fine tune" the product, but she has to come up with the idea (which she has), but I want her to look outside the box also. Thus the great links.

 

[MickeyMouth]

My daughter did this 2 years ago. We used an empty 2 liter soda bottle, cut it in half and put waterballoons all around the egg, then we taped the soda bottle shut. The egg did not drop when it was tossed from the school roof.

 

[SRUAlmn]

What about surrounding the egg with marshmellows and then wrapping the bubble wrap around the marshmellows and egg together? I think it worked on Full House