Lesson About Egg Packaging Successful

A lesson in consumer education turned into a physics “eggs-periment” for 111 Kankakee students, who watched as boxes of raw eggs they had packaged were dropped 200 feet from a plane.

The students, in third- through fifth-grade academically talented classes, took part in “The Great American Egg Drop” at the Greater Kankakee Airport.

Students designed the packages to prevent the eggs from breaking, and the drop was arranged to test the designs.

Rewards for Their Efforts

Amazingly, 56 students engineered packages that protected all three of their eggs from breaking, and all of the participants will receive recognition for their efforts.

Teachers Linda Beck, Paula Brigham and Debra Brooks planned the event after discussing packaging in industry as part of a consumer education unit.

After learning how manufacturers design packages to be inexpensive, effective and tamper-proof, the children were asked to design egg containers and given a limit of $1 to spend on packaging materials.

The packages were dropped to a grassy area at the airport, the boxes were opened, and judges determined winners on several criteria--the number of surviving eggs and the creativity and construction of the containers.

School administrators and teachers served as judges, a Midway Airlines pilot flew the plane and a catering company donated hot chocolate sold to help defray the cost of the flight.