Have you heard of the egg drop challenge? My daughter has been begging to do it for months. I don’t know why we didn’t do it sooner. Well, I do. I thought it was going to make a giant mess that I would end up cleaning up but I was totally wrong. It was basically no mess at all. I will even say this Egg Drop Challenge was so much fun! Try this egg drop project with preschool, pre k, kindergarten, first grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, and 4th grade students for a fun, hands-on science project for kids.
Egg Drop Challenge
So what is the Egg Drop Challenge? Basically, you create a contraption with the intention of keeping the egg safe. You put an egg inside your contraption and drop from a high distance, we did a 6 foot ladder. There are so many options for what your contraption can be made of, the options are endless, and this is what makes it fun. There are so many possible ways to tweak this egg drop project for kindergartners, grade 1, grade 2, grade 3, grade 4, grade 5, and grade 6 students!
Whether you are a parent, teacher, or homeschooler – this classic experiment is a must try science project for kids of all ages!
Egg Drop Project
The idea with this egg drop science project is to have children try to think critically about why an egg might break when dropped and what you could do to protect the egg from breaking despite the impact of the landing. Some years we have made vehicles for the egg drop lined with kleenex, other times we have made simple parachutes to slow the fall, but this time we tried something completely different. You may have these things on hand; the beauty of this science project for kids is that you can use whatever household supplies you have on hand! Here are the few simple supplies we used in our egg drop experiment:
- Paper Ice Cream Bowls
- Rubber Bands
- Sandwich Bags
- Eggs
Egg Drop Ideas
Then I asked my daughter to find things in our house that may help keep the eggs safe inside the bowl. She was so much more creative than I had expected! Here are the different ideas she had that we tried:
- Empty Bowl
- Marshmallows – She filled the bowl half way with mini marshmallows, placed the egg on top, then filled the rest of the bowl with mini marshmallows.
- Playdough – She covered the egg in playdough and placed it in the bowl.
- Ooblek & Marshmallows – Ooblek is made with equal parts cornstarch and water. It is the substance that can be pounded with a hammer when hard but will also ooze through your fingers when you pick it up. After she poured some ooblek into the bowl, she placed the egg in. Then she topped with some more marshmallows.
Egg Drop Project Ideas
When the bowls were full and ready, I placed a sandwich bag over the top and secured it with a rubber band. We did this for all of the bowls. Next we voiced our hypothesis and then tried our experiment.
I thought for sure the playdough would work and thought that possibly the marshmallow & ooblek would work but I knew the empty bowl would not work. My daughter also knew that the empty bowl would not work. She thought that the marshmallow and playdough would work and really thought for sure that the ooblek and marshmallows would work.
She stood on a 6 foot ladder and I handed her one bowl at a time. She dropped them and we checked them all at the end.
The results are in…
- Empty Bowl – We were right, the empty bowl did not work. The egg splattered all over the inside of the bowl and the bag top.
- The playdough did not work.
- The marshmallow idea did not work either. I was disappointed at this point. I wanted one of my daughters’ creations to work!
- Then we opened the ooblek and marshmallow bowl. I think I literally screamed “WHAAT?”, in surprise. I was so excited for her. It worked. The egg sank down into the ooblek and the marshmallows helped soften the blow too. It was the perfect egg drop contraption!
Besides practicing creating a hypothesis and the scientific method, we also talked about how gravity made the bowls fall. The weight of the bowls and force of motion made the bowls smack to the ground, regardless of what was in them.
Science for Kids
Looking for lots more fun, science experiments for kids? You’ve GOT to try some of these outrageously fun science experiments for kids! We have so many fun, creative and easy science experiments for elementary age children:
- 100 Amazing Food science experiments for kids – arranged by type of science
- Colorful Capillary action science experiment (also known as walking water)
- Amaze kids with these 12 Hands on Science experiments with batteries
- 24 Epic Solar system science projects to try this week
- Fun Water balloon science experiment that explores density
- 50 Fun Preschool science experiments the whole family will want to try
- Simple Galaxy science project
- Easy and Fun Dancing Raisins Experiment
- Learn about weather as you find how to make a weather vane
- Eye opening Eye science experiments
- Easy-to- make Air pressure science project
- Amazing POP rocks science experiment is one of our all-time favorite science experiments we like to do during the summer are
- Stunning Chromatography Flowers are so pretty you’ll forget it was as science project!
- How to Make a Lava Lamp – super easy and SO cool!
- 30 Simple machines science projects kids will want to try
- Easy, fascinating, and colorful project answering Why do Leaves Change Color Experiment
- Free Printable Animal Classifications for Kids Cootie Catchers
- 19 Edible science experiments – which delicious project will you try first?
- HUGE Free Solar System Unit (coloring pages, hands on science projects, worksheets, and more!)
- Pipe Cleaner Constellation Activity (As seen on Good Housekeeping!)
- Teach kids about conductivity with this fun squishy circuits projects
- Amazing, Heat Sensitive, Color Changing Slime
- Life Cycles for Kids (from penguin to sunflower and spider to turkey we have LOTS of life cycles to explore and learn about)
- EASY, Colorful Oil and Water Science Experiment
- Kids will be amazed as you change colors of white flowers with this Dying Flowers Science Experiment
- This super cool Lego Zipline is fun and simple to make
- Human Body Project
- Check out this super cool look INSIDE a Volcano Project
- Exploding Watermelon – science experiment that explores potential and kinetic energy with a big WOW moment!
- Memorable Life Size Skeletal system science project – includes free printable template
- Find LOTS more Easy Science Experiments for kids of all ages!
