- Papillion La Vista Community Schools
- 2023-24 District News
Egg Drop Challenge teaches PLHS students physics lesson
(Students drop eggs off the balcony as part of egg drop challenge)
10th-grade students were busy finding ways to create “safe packages” for raw eggs that were dropped from a 10-foot balcony at Papillion La Vista High School on October 29.
The project was done in physical science classes as the students study Newton’s Laws of Motion.
The students needed to calculate force, acceleration, and mass to try to predict how to make a "safe package" for their raw egg to land safely after being dropped from the 10-foot balcony. The students were able to use their creativity when it came to protecting the egg and building a safe space.
They were instructed to give the outside a little "crumple zone" the middle should be a firm and/or strong material to protect the egg and the inside should allow the egg some cushion and "give" to keep the shell intact.
Students were given prizes for the most creative project, the sturdiest project, the safest project, and "most unique". They were graded on the effort of putting the project together and not on whether their eggs splattered across the ground. When Science Teacher Michelle Mathison asked the class how they felt like they learned best, 10th-grade student Mikee Naegele replied, "I think hands-on learning is when I learn best, I will never forget this lab."
(Students were given the freedom to think up their own creative way of protecting the egg)
(The egg protection devices ranged from boxes to duct taped bags)
(Michelle Mathison poses with two students participating in the egg drop challenge)
(The eggs were dropped from a 10-foot balcony)