I’m one of those fathers. The ones that send their own project to the science fair. Well, actually, I’m NOT, but I think the request made of my kids seemed a little unfair for kindergartners. And I wanted them to win.
And, it struck a chord in my past. My Father died a few years ago, and this is a project he did with me, albeit when I was in Junior High. Is this how technically advanced kids are these days? That they have access to aerospace technology in kindergarten?
So, round about 25 years ago, I had a mission: Protect an egg thrown off a four story building (the Junior High) and get it to survive. Most everybody was using straws and toilet paper and ducttape and Dad had a different idea. He talked about how NASA had to sent probes to the moon, had to do it cheaply, and in such a way that they survived both liftoff and a ballistic landing at the end of their commute. He said the sensor packages were suspended in expanding foam. Once it dried, it was scored around the perimeter, trimmed to shape, and ballistically shot to the moon.
Upon impact, the devices landed largely unharmed as the impact was spread across the whole surface area of the device. The foam broke at the scored lines, and the sensors could relay the data. Now, I don’t know if it’s true or not, I DO know in passing that the theory successfully protected(*) my egg, and that my Google-fu is weak as all I can find is the retelling of the Shuttle disaster caused by foam separation. Kind of a downer for this article.
Which brings us to the present. We live in a smarter, more modern age, and there’s a detail I’m leaving out. So if you use this technique to give you or a youngling a leg up on the competition, know there’s a caveat and read the rules carefully. The object THIS time, is to have mere six-year-olds build a contraption that protects the egg off a 1.5 story building. Easy Peasy.
Take one shoebox, one egg, some saran wrap, and do the following:
1. Place a layer of Great Stuff (or generic equivalent) in the bottom of the shoeboox. Lay one layer of saran wrap on top.
2. Carefully place the egg so that it doesn’t squish the foam out from under it (there some foam supporting the egg)
3. place a second layer of saran wrap (so that you can get the egg back out again!)
4. fill the rest of the shoebox with foam and let dry.
5. optionally, you can take a hack saw blade (or bread knife) and trim the foam to fit the lid. I chose not to.
Duplicate for second kid (I’m good, I can make a solution that works, I can’t make TWO DIFFERENT ones that work…at least not until I get the foundry up and running.)
* Legal Disclaimer: So here’s the downside: If they’re expecting the egg to land UNHARMED, you’re screwed. It’ll land, and the shell will be intact and unblemished, but the innards will be WELL SCRAMBLED. You just can’t distribute the loads without breaking some yolk. I should also add that it works dependable with the egg it was moulded for. So be careful, or choose your eggs wisely.
