2021 Egg Drop Update!

Thank you to all of our 26th Annual Egg Drop participants!! And thank you to everyone who came to the Library to watch as well as those who viewed our live stream from home!!

The overall winner of this year’s Egg Drop is A2: Sanjeev Sundararajan

The most artistic win goes to the dragon – F2: The Schmidt Family

Pre-K to 3rd – A2: Sanjeev Sundararajan
4th-6th Grade – B21: Meenakshi Arasada
7th-8th Grade – Mahika Thakur
High School – D3: Meenakshi Rama Subramamiam
Beyond High School – E1: Deepthi Srinivasan
Family – F4: Tyagi Family
Friends/Group: No Survivors

Thank you again to everyone who competed this year, and we hope to see your creative capsules again next summer!

egg drop prep
egg drop splatter
eggdrop winner

What is Egg Drop?

Build a device that will protect a raw egg – keep it from cracking or breaking – when the device and egg are dropped from the third-floor balcony. The lightest egg drop capsule that successfully protects its egg will be the overall winner! There will also be winners by grade categories and other categories as noted below.

Family entries, adult entries, team entries, and of course, lots of kid entries are welcome. There are prizes, a trophy for the Grand prize winner (the survivor which weighs in lightest of all), PLUS the great excitement of science experimentations! Enjoy!

Egg Drop kits are available for pickup! While supplies last. Pickup is on the third floor of the library. Please ask a staff member for assistance. You may only use the materials we have provided for you. You can drop off your completed kits from July 6 to July 8. Our annual Egg Drop will take place on July 10 via live stream this year!

Rules on Materials and Construction

Violation of any of the following rules will result in disqualification. If time allows, we will drop disqualified egg drop capsules. They will not be eligible for prizes.

  1. Your egg drop capsule must be made from the supplies in the egg drop kit:
    • 1 paper bag
    • 5 rubber bands
    • 4 plastic straws
    • 4 crafts sticks
    • 4ft string
    • 2 sheets of newspaper
    • 2 balloons
    • 10 cotton balls
    • 1 cardboard rectangle
  2. Your device cannot be motorized.
  3. Your device must drop vertically onto our target area or close to it. No horizontal flight or gliding is allowed.
  4. Each Egg Drop Capsule must have a well-anchored loop of string to similar on its top from which it will be suspended and dropped.
  5. Each Egg Drop Capsule must allow for easy access for egg placement. Library staff will be inserting eggs into the capsules and can do so without specific instructions.
  6. Judges will load eggs into your device.  When loaded, the egg should be visible and easy to remove to judge breakage and cracks. Full wrapping of eggs in a substance/material is not allowed if an egg cannot be easily loaded into your egg drop capsule.
  7. The device MUST be dropped off in the Science Center (3rd floor of the library) before the competition. Drop-off times are: Tuesday, July 6th-Thursday, July 8th, from 10am to 5pm.
  8. At 11am on Saturday, July 10th we will put out a livestream for participants to watch. 

Competition Categories Include:

A = Individual: Preschool – Grade 3

B = Individual: Grades 4-6

C = Individual: Grades 7-8

D = Individual: High School

E = Individual: Beyond High School/Adult

F = Team: Family

G = Team: Friends 

Additional Categories

  • Most Artistic – Can use markers and decorative elements that do not add weight, as judged by the Egg Drop Judges.
  • Most Exposed Egg – The surviving egg with the most exposed egg surface/fewest contact points with its capsule, as judged by the Teen Advisory Board and Egg Drop Judges.

Judging

  1. An Egg Drop Judge will load an egg into your device and release it.  After the drop, the egg will be inspected for cracks and breaks. 
  2. Prizes will be awarded. The Egg Drop Judges recognize that ties are possible.  To resolve ties, the devices will be weighed (without the egg), before the start of the competition.  If there is a tie, the winning device will be the one that weighs the least for the Most Artistic and Most Exposed Egg. 
  3. All unanticipated events during the competition will be resolved by the Egg Drop Judges, in the spirit of the rules given above.

Prizes

The Grand Prize winner will be the lightest egg drop capsule that survives a fall from the 3rd-floor balcony. They will receive a 3D printed trophy.

Individual and Other category winners will receive a 3D printed medal.

Questions? Send them to dmiguez@plainsborolibrary.org with the subject line “Egg Drop Question.”