Can you get your fragile egg safely to the surface? We have all heard of the classic egg drop experiment; however, the sophomore students in Mrs. Feeley’s growth group at Kemmerer Junior Senior High School took it to the next level. The students were asked to design a parachute that would allow an unprotected egg to drop from the track above the gym down to the gym floor, 16 feet  8 inches.

Now here is where it gets tricky. No bubble wrap or packing peanuts were allowed; the unprotected egg had to impact the floor first. Students were given six class periods totaling four and half hours to create some type of parachute and a holder to harness the egg. The students used test drops to try to perfect their projects, each time learning different ways to slow down their drop time, therefore decreasing the force of the impact.

This is the second year Mrs. Feeley has assigned this project and even though the kids were always creative in finding ways to land their eggs, the outcome was always the same.  This year she finally had one student, Ryan Carroll, safely land his egg on the gym floor not just once but twice with zero previous test drops.

Ryan, son of Cody and Josie Shelton, is a sophomore at Kemmerer Junior Senior High School who lives and breathes everything science. He designed two parachutes, one on top of the other, and a small popsicle stick basket with net sides. He was a little excited about the extra 10 minutes of lunch awarded to him for his success, but most of all he was just satisfied with the fact that he was the first student to successfully land the fragile egg.