Egg-cellent Engineering Eggs-perience

On Tuesday, Year 5 took part in a fun space experiment led by a STEM Ambassador, Rachel Keefe.

The children had to be Design Engineers and design a rocket which would safely return an ‘eggstronaut’ (Neil Eggstrong) back to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS).

Their main task was to work as a team and figure out how to cushion the egg from impact using as few materials as possible.

They had half an hour in order to design and make the best rocket possible using a range of materials including recycled plastics, balloons, tape, cardboard and bubble wrap.

Some of the most popular materials used were bubble wrap and balloons.

Year 5 needed to make decisions about the properties of the materials offered to them and found themselves testing their craft for impact absorption, aerodynamics and visual appeal.

The group were then tasked with dropping their creations from the balcony outside of the Innovation Room to find out how they would perform.

Rachel explained to the children how best to achieve impact absorption by layering at the impact point and how balloon surface area could absorb energy.

The children found the task inspiring and challenging, but overall very enjoyable.