Students take a crack at engineering

By Julie K. Buzbee

Special to The Capital-Journal

Published Sunday, March 09, 2008

There was a lot of last-minute scrambling going on Saturday morning at the Capitol, but it had nothing to do with the Legislature.

Kids and adults lined up shoulder-to-shoulder around the railing of the third floor in the rotunda to watch as eggs shielded in homemade containers of every size, color and description dropped 25 feet in the 18th Annual Egg Drop Competition sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers Younger Members Group.

"The winner will be the lightest-weighted one that survives the fall," said Bill Heptig, a member of the engineering organization who has helped with the event for five years.

Students take a crack at engineering

Mike Burley / The Capital-Journal

Daniel Tangari, 11, left, and Trayton Schafer, 10, let go of their egg from the second floor of the rotunda as they participate in
an egg drop competition Saturday at the Capitol.

"I remember doing it when I was in school and it was fun," he said. "Obviously, this isn't for a grade, which makes it more fun."

Students from grades four through nine could work alone or with a partner to build their egg-protecting structure. Parachutes, balloons, bubble wrap and lighter-than-air gases weren't allowed to be used in the project.

Each contestant was given a standard-sized large egg and had 15 minutes to place it into its structure before the drop. As an ASCE member dropped each egg and structure, the crowd responded appreciatively with ooooohhs and aaaaaahhhs and applause. Collective groans went up when some hit pretty hard.

Bailey Schneider, 9, of Topeka Collegiate School, used a lime green crepe paper contraption that included Easter grass on the inside, she said.

Bailey's parents, Greg and Petra Schneider, were there to cheer her on. Hers was one of 21 successful drops in the category of fourth- through sixth-graders.

Aaron Frits, president of the ASCE Kansas Section, Younger Members Group, said the competition had 81 participants this year.

Khadre Lane and his teammate, Ian Sellens, said their egg survived the drop, too. The 12-year-olds, who attend Sunset Hill Elementary in Lawrence, surrounded their egg with paper, cotton balls, a disposable diaper and a box within a box.

Seventh-grader Jordan Laney, of Topeka Lutheran, won the category for older students. Elena Blum and Savia Pettinella, fifth-graders at Topeka Collegiate, won the other category.

Not everyone fared as well.

"We scrambled some eggs," one parent said sadly. "That's why they make next year."

GOOD EGGS

The winners of the American Society of Civil Engineers Young Members 18^th Annual Egg Drop Competition in the fourth- through sixth-grade bracket were: first place, Savia Pettinella and Elena Blum, fifth-graders at Topeka Collegiate; second, Allison Scott and Riley Voigt, sixth-graders at Topeka Lutheran; third, Jayme Ross, fifth-grade, Royal Valley Middle School; fourth, Clayton Fizer, fifth-grade, Topeka Collegiate; and fifth, Emma Bohlander and Sophie Oswald, fifth-grade, Topeka Collegiate.

In the category for grades seventh through ninth, the winners were: first place, Jordan Raney, seventh-grade, Topeka Lutheran; second, Madison Myers and Reston Phillips, eighth-graders at Topeka Collegiate; third, Michael Frampton, seventh-grade, Topeka Lutheran; fourth, Erinn Steere and Michael Tilton, seventh-graders at Topeka Lutheran; and fifth, Joyce Brennan and Colton Manley, eighth-graders at Topeka Collegiate.