Great Egg Drop

Small groups design an egg package to save an egg from breaking when dropped. Followed by the Great Egg Drop-Off.

Set Up

Divide the participants into groups of four or five.
Explain the task - to build a single egg package that can sustain a fall of 8ft (top of a supermarket shelf)
Optionally, add the second task of preparing 30 second pitch to sell their package.
Set the time limit to 30 minutes if you want to put the teams under a lot of time pressure. Set it to 45 minutes to allow some experimentation.

Time

Total time ~75 minutes

Equipment

Straws
Masking tape
An egg
Optionally a spare egg
Any other items your want to include like and egg box, cardboard, paper towel, paper clips, rubber bands etc
Optionally a large tray to catch the dropped eggs and reduce the clearing up

Group Size

4 to 6 is ideal. For larger groups, divide them into teams.

Facilitators Notes

Typical approaches are to dive in and flail around, trying several designs and then rushing to finish. As the groups engage in the task, encourage planning and organisation within each group, early in the process.
Try progressively increasing the hight of the drop test if teams are too successful.
Restrict the materials to make the task more challenging.

How it Works

N/A

Variations

Use your imagination.

Processing Ideas

What was the initial reaction of the group?
How well did the group cope with this challenge?
What skills did it take to be successful as a group?
What creative solutions were suggested and how were they received?
What would an outside observer have seen as the strengths and weaknesses of the group?
What roles did people play?
What did each group member learn about him/her self as an individual?
What common life situations are similar?

References

Not known

Acknowledgement

Sales Drive