• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Shop
  • Blog
  • Podcast
  • Courses
    • Teaching Every Reader
    • Teaching Every Writer
  • Subscriber Freebies
  • About
  • Contact

The Measured Mom

Education resources for parents and teachers

  • Alphabet
  • Reading
    • Printable Books
    • Pre-Reading
    • Balanced Literacy
    • Phonics
    • Sight Words
    • Comprehension
    • Fluency
    • Vocabulary
  • Writing
    • Grammar
    • Handwriting
    • Spelling
    • Writing in Pre-K
    • Writing Workshop in K-3
  • Math
    • Counting
    • Number Recognition
    • Addition & Subtraction
    • Colors, Shapes & Patterns
    • Visual Discrimination
    • Time, Money & Measurement
    • Place Value
    • Graphs
    • Multiplication & Division
    • Fractions
    • Problem Solving
  • Book Lists
    • Letter of the Week
    • Early Childhood Themes
    • Pre-Reading Skills
    • Math Concepts
    • Writing Mentor Texts
    • Versions of Familiar Tales
    • Holidays and Seasonal
    • History
    • Leveled Book Lists
  • Membership
Home
  • Shop
  • Blog
    • Alphabet
    • Reading
    • Writing
    • Math
    • Book Lists
  • Podcast
  • Courses
    • Teaching Every Reader
    • Teaching Every Writer
  • Subscriber Freebies
  • About
  • Membership
  • Contact

PSPKK123 October 1, 2014  •  3 Comments

The classic egg drop experiment

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Looking for a fun science idea?  We loved the classic egg drop experiment!

Broken Egg on Kitchen Floor
Photo from Depositphotos

I’ve decided to put together some classic science activities to do with kids.  Have you seen our “which snack food is the greasiest” experiment?  This was the natural first choice because it involved junk food we don’t typically have at our house – and of course the sampling of it.

For our second experiment we made a mess.  Also fun. 😉

egg drop experiment 1

Our goal: to make a cushion which would keep our egg from breaking in a fall.  My Seven held the egg in a bag of water.  My Six held the egg in an empty plastic bag.  We made our predictions, and we were in agreement: the egg in water had a better chance of surviving the drop.

egg drop experiment 2

We placed an unopened garbage bag on our cement patio for easy clean-up in case the bags should split open.  My Seven and Six dropped their bags at the same time.  No surprise — the egg without cushion broke on impact.

egg drop experiment 3

But the egg in water survived the fall!  This had us thinking about other possible cushioning materials.  Would our sandbox sand do the job?

egg drop experiment 4

My Four dropped the egg this time, and we learned that sandbox sand was a great cushion.  How about newspaper?

egg drop experiment 5

We scrunched up the newspaper and packaged it around the egg.  My Two dropped the bag.

egg drop experiment 6

We were surprised that the egg broke, but we realized that it had not been balanced in the material.  When my Two dropped the bag, the egg pulled it to one side, and the egg made a direct hit on the concrete.  Whoops.  We could have tried this again with better packaging, but we wanted to see if an egg could survive a fall in an egg carton.

Considering all the broken eggs we see at the grocery store, we were quite sure it would not.

egg drop experiment 7

My Six held the carton at chest height…

egg drop experiment 8

… and dropped it.  We opened up the carton, expecting to find a yolky mess.

egg drop experiment 9

But we were wrong!  How about if we held the carton higher?  My Seven held the carton above her head and let it fall.

egg drop experiment 10

The egg was still intact!

egg drop experiment 11

So my Four stood on a chair, held the carton over his head, and slammed it down.

egg drop experiment 13

Splat!

The classic egg drop activity leaves room for so much experimenting!  Try some of these variations:

Other materials to try for cushion:

  • paper towels or kleenex
  • pudding or Jell-O
  • cereal
  • bubble wrap

Further investigations:

  • Repeat the experiment with different amounts of the same material in each bag.  For example, fill one bag half full of water and one bag three quarters full.
  • Fill several bags with the same material, but drop them at different heights.  Does dropping the egg at a different height make a difference in how well it stays together?
  • Drop the egg onto different surfaces.  We used concrete. You could also drop the egg onto grass, a pile of dirt, or a bucket of water.

The science:

When you drop the egg, it gains speed as it falls. Without any protection, it hits the ground hard and fast, causing it to break.  When you protect the egg by packaging it in water, newspaper, or another cushioning material, you reduce the impact of the fall on the egg.  The cushion hits the ground first, protecting  the egg from the full force of the impact.   Whether the egg breaks depends on the amount of energy your padding system absorbs.

 For more science fun, follow me on Pinterest!

Follow The Measured Mom’s board Preschool Science on Pinterest.

Follow The Measured Mom’s board Science fun (gr. K + up) on Pinterest.

Love Freebies?

Subscribing to our email newsletter is completely free. And when you do, you'll get access to our library of subscriber freebies! Sign up below to get access to a wonderful variety of math and literacy resources.

Filed Under: General Tagged With: first grade, second grade, third grade, kindergarten

You May Also Enjoy These Posts:

Free Letter P PrintableLetter K Activities for 2-Year-OldsWhat not to say to a pregnant woman
Short a phonics books
Jello Sensory Play

Reader Interactions

3 Comments

  1. Matilda Whtey

    October 1, 2014 at 5:14 pm

    Dear A.Geiger,
    Hi there , I m studying Early Childhood Education here in Farmington,NM
    For my Advocacy Project I chose to do a children Literacy book drive. For 3-5 years old children at a Navajo Head Start Program . I went to the Head Start today and I found out that the Head Start has limited books. So I was wondering if you could help me .

    Reply to this comment
    • Anna Geiger

      October 1, 2014 at 5:29 pm

      Hello, Matilda!

      I don’t do collections or fundraisers through my site, but you might be interested in the free books that you can print at The Measured Mom. I have free letter books which are perfect for kids age 3-5 because they are full of rhymes and songs that all kids need to listen to. You can find them here: https://www.themeasuredmom.com/free-letter-books/ The children may also enjoy my sight word books which are also free to print: https://www.themeasuredmom.com/free-emergent-readers/

      Reply to this comment

Trackbacks

  1. Egg Drop Activity STEM Challenge for Kids says:
    March 4, 2015 at 12:12 pm

    […] that my son just isn't ready for yet. I happened to see this plastic bag style of egg drop over at The Measured Mom . I thought we could really expand on this egg drop with items from the kitchen to protect the […]

    Reply to this comment

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Grade Level Key

  • PS Preschool (ages 2-3 years)
  • PK Pre-K (ages 4-5 years)
  • K Kindergarten
  • 1 1st grade
  • 2 2nd grade
  • 3 3rd grade

Hello, I’m Anna!

Welcome to The Measured Mom. I’m so glad you’re here!

Meet Our Team

Love Freebies?

Subscribing to our email newsletter is completely free. And when you do, you'll get access to our library of subscriber freebies! Sign up below to get access to a wonderful variety of math and literacy resources.

Shop Our Most Popular Resources

At The Measured Mom®, our mission is to share high quality educational resources that are engaging for students and easy for educators.

Letter of the Week Curriculum

$29.00

120 Print and Play Math & Literacy Games for K-2

$15.00

Mystery problem solving activities

$20.00

Shop All Resources

Members get more!

The Measured Mom Plus is the perfect online membership for Pre-K to third grade educators.

Learn More

Love Freebies?

Subscribing to our email newsletter is completely free. And when you do, you'll get access to our library of subscriber freebies! Sign up below to get access to a wonderful variety of math and literacy resources.

Join our online courses and get the tools you need to teach every learner in K-2!

Confidently teach every reader in your classroom. Still have time to live your life.

Learn More

Get everything you need to teach writing well, including over 200 ready-to-use lessons.

Learn More

Listen and subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and Stitcher

Check out these recent podcast episodes:

  • The 3 Keys to teaching phonological awareness
  • 5 Important things you may not know about phonological awareness
  • How to meet every writer’s needs during writing workshop
More Episodes

Join the conversation over on Facebook! We have three separate groups for Pre-K through grade 3.

Join Facebook Group

Check out these FREE email courses...

Get strategies and tools to teach a particular topic with a free 5-day email series! Just click an image to sign up. We recommend signing up for just one at a time.

For Pre-K Educators

How to teach letters and sounds to preschoolers

How to teach letters and sounds to preschoolers

Learn my must-follow tips for teaching the alphabet in this free 5-day email series!

How to teach phonological & phonemic awareness

How to teach phonological & phonemic awareness

Learn how to develop this important pre-reading skill with a free 5-day email series!

How to teach preschool math

How to teach preschool math

Learn exactly what to teach your preschoolers in this free 5-day series!

For Kinder & 1st Grade Educators

How to teach kids to sound out words

How to teach kids to sound out words

Learn my top strategies for teaching kids to "sound it out"

How to teach sight words

How to teach sight words

Get strategies and tools for teaching sight words to young learners!

Tips for teaching phonics

Tips for teaching phonics

Sign up for our free 5-day email series to learn what phonics skills to teach and how to structure your phonics lessons!

For 2nd & 3rd Grade Educators

How to build reading fluency

How to build reading fluency

Learn smart strategies for helping your learners become fluent readers with this free 5-day series!

How to teach writing in 2nd & 3rd grade

How to teach writing in 2nd & 3rd grade

Learn the most important writing skills to teach to 2nd & 3rd graders in this free 5-day series!

How to build reading comprehension

How to build reading comprehension

Discover the essential reading comprehension strategies for 2nd & 3rd grade and how to teach them!

“Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” –Matthew 6:33

Copyright © 2021 The Measured Mom •  All rights reserved  •  Privacy & Disclosure Statement  •  Site Design by Emily White Designs