Teaching and Learning in the Digital Age

 The Year 8 students at Echuca College attended this “Egg Drop 4 Maths” workshop, and were asked to “buy” materials (totalling not more that a dollar’s worth) to make a Egg Transporting Device (ETD) that would keep a raw egg safe when dropped from several heights ranging from 2 metres above the ground to around 10 metres high.  This workshop formed part of our unit on Sustainability (called “Footprints”, for immersion video see this Footprints Teachertube link).

Each material the students could pick from had different monetary values, with the cheapest values allocated to the materials like wood chips (natural materials that can degrade easily) and shredded paper (recycled material), and the most expensive materials those that posed threats to the environment (e.g. plastic bubble wrap and plastic straws, and rubber balloons). The students were asked to work in pairs or trios to plan and build a device with the materials they bought, while all the while keeping a record of the planning and thoughts. Students also had to keep track of the results of other egg devices, and report back in the Analysis of Results Form. (Links to all the handouts and documents are given below.)

The list of materials to choose from were: Cardboard piece (large) @ 15 cents, Cardboard piece (medium) @ 10 cents, Cardboard piece (small) @ 5 cents, cup @ 10 cents, straw @ 5 cents, bubble wrap (20 cm by 20 cm) @ 15 cents, peanuts (15) @ 15 cents, Plastic/Polystyrene bubbles @ 15cents for a handfull, tissue paper (1 sheet) @ 5 cents, butcher paper (1 sheet) @ 5 cents, scotch tape (1 metre lenght) @ 10 cents, masking tape (1 metre) @ 20 cents, duct tape (1 metre) @ 25 cents, rubber band (one) @ 5 cents.

The “winning” device was the one that could keep the egg safe when dropped from the top of the squash courts, (about 10m high), providing it was also the cheapest “device” out of all the successful “devices”. Interestingly the winning “device” did not use bubble wrap (or any wrapping for that matter!), but relied on balancing the egg on a “floating square” using the upward air resistence to stem the fall of the egg.

The students had to work in pairs, and the results of their efforts are shown in the photos showcased on the blog http://eggdrop4maths.blogspot.com/. The students with the cheapest ETD that kept the egg intact, won! And everyone had fun!  Here is a video showing the “devices”.  Below the video are the handouts that supported the workshop.

Video showcasing the “Egg Drop Devices”

Here are the handouts and support documents for this EggDrop4Maths workshop. You can download these documents from where they are saved on Google Docs:

1. EggDrop4Maths Lesson Plan http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0ATrf3vzsgKqKZGNyNjhnZDhfMTQwZ3gyZ2tzZnE&hl=en
2. EggDrop4Maths List Materials to choose from, and Cost of Materials http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0ATrf3vzsgKqKZGNyNjhnZDhfMTQxZjg0amtxbTI&hl=en
3. EggDrop4Maths Basic Rubric http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0ATrf3vzsgKqKZGNyNjhnZDhfMTQyY21zcjk3ZGg&hl=en
4. EggDrop4Maths: Write Up of your plans, and reflecting on your design http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0ATrf3vzsgKqKZGNyNjhnZDhfMTM5ZGJuNnBoY2c&hl=en
5. EggDrop4Maths: Student : Analysis of Results: http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0ATrf3vzsgKqKZGNyNjhnZDhfMTM1ZHo5eHRrZHg&hl=en
6. EggDrop4Maths: Data Grid http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0ATrf3vzsgKqKZGNyNjhnZDhfMTM4ZmdzNzk4bXI&hl=en
7. EggDrop4Maths: Cooperative Group Checklist (Self and Peer Assessment of Cooperative work in the team) http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0ATrf3vzsgKqKZGNyNjhnZDhfMTM3Y2M4a2ZjY3A&hl=en

A video showcasing all the devices can also be viewed in the Eggdrop4Maths Teachertube Video.

The video below shows another school doing a similar experiment. 

 I was sent the link to this video via Twitter (c_snudden video of my class doing the egg drop earlier this year, gr8 minds think alike!http://bit.ly/wLJOs or here http://teachertube.com/members/viewVideo.php?video_id=114972&title=Egg_science_experiment)