A Life of Liberti -- And The Pursuit of Happiness: Egg Drop

Domino's school recently had its an annual "Egg Drop". The Egg Drop is a fun event where kids package up eggs in recycled materials with the goal of the egg being able to survive a launch off the roof by the teachers. It's a great time filled with a chorus of "ooh!"s "ahh!"s and "d'oh!!!"s as kids watch their eggs fly through the air and hit the ground with a resounding thud. Some packing withstands the impact beautifully, others packages explode on impact on the ground below leaving traces of Egg Drop hope and shredded paper bits behind like confetti after a huge New Years Eve bash.

Remains of Egg Drop causalities

Last year, Domino created "The Ruff Ride 360". His egg survived the plummet (probably because I did most of the packaging of the egg and made sure it could handle the impact). This year, Domino created "The Glider" - a tissue box filled with a cut up egg carton, covered in white butcher paper, with 2 yogurt cups taped to the sides like airplane wings. I left the design and creation to him and only offered suggestions as to what I thought might be big issues. It was difficult to be so "hands off" but I knew it was important for him to take ownership of his project. It was an important lesson for both of us. I assisted with a few test run tosses in the backyard and the egg came away in "egg-celent" condition (I "crack" myself up... someone stop me...).

This year, the Egg Drop rules were slightly different. All packing needed to be recyclable. That meant no tape. I wasn't aware of the "no tape" rule and when we arrived at the school we immediately had to modify The Glider and remove the yogurt cup wings and all tape holding the butcher paper on and the tissue box closed.

How'd his egg do?