In Callum's most recent project for school, his science class had to participate in an Egg Drop. It was part of their motion and energy studies. Students had to create a vessel in which to drop an egg from roughly a two-storey height. Of course the egg should not crack on impact. The vessel could not contain typical packing materials such as bubble wrap or packing peanuts, and it had to be smaller than an average shoe box.

Callum spent a lot of time thinking about drag and padding and tried several different containers. While cloth was his original choice to protect the egg, one afternoon we were leaving Michael's and he wondered if Easter grass might not be a better choice. (There was a bit of a concern that Easter grass could be considered "typical" packing material since the Easter Bunny does use it to protect his eggs...)

Using a clamshell that had held strawberries (with vents to create drag), his first attempt was with cloth padding. Splat.

Next try: Easter grass. Success! At least at our house it was successful.

We tried it again off a neighbor's play structure with less impressive results (splat, again) and determined that how you dropped the vessel was as important as the vessel itself.

So lid up, Callum dropped his container from the highest point we could find at home and then again, yesterday at school from the top of the bleachers. Success again! (And let me tell you, these kids were really creative. Only four eggs cracked [out of 40], and possibly my favorite container was by one of Callum's buds: bread! It worked! And then he ate the bread.)

For a reward all the kids got to take their eggs into the woods and chuck them at a tree. Now that's what I call science.