The classic egg-drop experiment gets a new bounce with an activity that asks pairs to design a lander similar to one used to land a rover on Mars within a fixed budget. The activity provides a great introduction to the idea of terminal velocity in action. 

Concepts

terminal velocity, egg drops, mars, mars rover, design, engineering design, technology resources

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Additional Tags

egg-lander experiment, mars landing spacecraft, terminal velocity

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Instructional Ideas

• Change up the supply list to adjust the difficulty of the activity; provide more types of materials or allow for parachutes
• Because the internal equipment also must survive the fall, check to see if the yolk breaks even though the egg may survive

Classroom Considerations

• Need a location where pupils can safely drop their designs from the same height
• The 11th installment in a 13-part series

Pros

• The activity comes with pre-, post-, and during-assessments
• The number of different materials is limited in the activity

Cons

• None

Common Core

6.RP.A.3.b 6.NS.B.2