Egg Drop Grades 6-12

Teams  are required to purchase their own  materials and build their Egg Drop container prior to arrival at the competition. Students in middle school and high school may participate in this event.

Middle School Division:
The objective of this competition is to design and construct a container which will prevent 1 raw egg from breaking when the container is dropped. The competition will be judged on the number of times the container can be dropped without breaking the egg.  The egg and container may be dropped by a competition official at several different heights, from 1.5, 2.5, and/or 3.5 floor staircase landings. Each competition entry must be designed by a team of 2-5 middle school students. 

High School Division:
The objective of this competition is to design and construct a container which will prevent 2 raw eggs from breaking when the container is dropped. The competition will be judged on the number of times the container can be dropped without breaking the eggs.  The eggs and container may be dropped by a competition official at several different heights, from 1.5, 2.5, and/or 3.5 floor staircase landings. Each competition entry must be designed by a team of 2-5 high school students. 

Design Principals

The following principles constrain the design and materials used so that the competition is safe and does not damage UofM property. The judges will not allow a container to be dropped if they deem that it does not follow these principles.

Containers must:

• Not be dangerous to spectators while falling or after impact
• Not damage the landing surface
• Not make a mess that cannot be quickly picked up after impact

Rules:

The following rules are based on the principles listed above. However, the following rules do not exhaust every possibility, and the judges have final discretion of what is not allowed within the design principles. 

• Containers must be ready for loading at the site of competition. Only the eggs supplied by competition officials on site may be used.
• Containers may not be “fixed” between drops, except to replace the egg after inspection.

• Containers must be designed so that they may be dropped from any position. They must also be immediately reusable.  
• Containers must entirely fit within a 12 in × 12 in × 12 in cube before drop. It must hold one egg (middle school division) or two eggs (high school division) before and after release.
• Containers must weigh less than 5 lbs. or 2.27 kg
• Containers must hit an approximately 12 ft × 4 ft landing zone on every drop.
• The judges must be able to access the eggs for inspection after landing.
• No parachutes allowed. This will be strictly enforced.
• Containers must not break into many small pieces upon impact.

Containers must not contain the following:

Material Allowances:

If you have any questions about this competition, please contact Dr. Aaryani Sajja, aaryani.sajja@memphis.edu