So are you allowed to celebrate Easter in your classroom? Me neither! To side-step this little hiccup, I like to bring in LOADS of spring activities and of course some egg-tastic experiments! I mean Easter obviously has religious undertones, but the egg part can work in any room, right? One of my favorite egg-themed activities is this egg experiment!
How Strong is an Egg, Really?
So when we think of eggs, we think easily breakable and delicate. For the most part, that is true. But how are chickens able to sit on eggs without breaking them? Maybe an egg is stronger than we think! This experiment will blow your students away! I love doing this simple experiment in teams of students right before Easter Holiday.
Egg Experiment Materials
To complete this experiment you will need a few things!
- An egg (or eggs if you’re doing it in small group of 2-4 kids)
- hand back books (textbooks work great!)
- newspaper or old chart paper
- play dough
Setting the Stage!
Engagement is key before ANY experiment. Before we begin, I love to engage my students’ backgrounds on eggs and their current conceptions. We discuss what would happen if I dropped and egg, sat on an egg or threw an egg across the room. Then, I ask what would happen if I stacked our textbooks on an egg? The kids always laugh and say it would break! But I say let’s see!
Getting Started
This is a perfect experiment to have students complete in groups of 2-4. Once students are in groups, I give each group a Scientific Method recording sheet, an egg, playdough, and a small stack of books. Together we work to fill out the question and hypothesis. Only one student in each group writes on their experiment write up page. So many students hypothesis that the egg will not be able to hold any books. Then, we work through the procedure of the experiment. I like to model it first for the students, then have them write what we’re doing (step by step). This way, as students work to set up their experiment they can refer back to what they wrote!
The Procedure
To set up this experiment, have students cover a table or desk with the newspaper or old chart paper. Then, have students work to make a base for the egg using the playdough.
This base will keep the egg from rolling when we place books on top of it. Next, have students create a top for the egg. It should be flat so that the books will lay on top.
From there… start adding books, one at a time. Have each group count up their number of books and record as they go. Students stack until the egg…
CRACKS!
This is usually between 4-8 books!
The Results
After all students have cracked their eggs, the groups should share and record their results. Students can draw their results on the recording sheet. Be sure to discuss each groups results!
Conclusions
Compare results. How many books were the eggs able to support? Are the eggs as delicate as we think they are? Work to answer these questions as a class. Then, use the comparison of each group’s results as part of the conclusion of the egg experiment.
Clean up is pretty easy with this one! Just gather the newspaper, egg, and playdough and throw them away in the trash. The paper acts as a barrior, so clean up really is a breeze! if students do somehow get egg on their table or hands, have students wash with warm soap and water and wipe their desk using an anitbaterial wipe.
That’s one of my favorite egg experiments to do at this time of year! Want to grab this experiment for your own scientists to complete? Click the image below!
Sign up to snag these!
Receive all these classroom management tools right to your inbox!
