April 25, 2006

Purdue sponsors high school egg launch competition in Muncie

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Groups of high school students will use physics principles to shoot eggs through the air without breaking them during the third annual Iron Egg Drop Competition.

The event will take place at 9:45 a.m. Friday (April 28) at Ball State University's West Campus Field Picnic Shelter in Muncie, Ind. Purdue University's College of Technology Anderson/Muncie location and Ball State's Department of Industrial Technology are sponsoring the competition.

In the competition, groups of four to six high school students design and build an apparatus to launch an egg at a target 25 meters away, as well as a container to hold the egg and keep it from breaking upon landing.

"The students in the contest are able to put to use the concepts they are learning in the classroom, as well as have fun," said David Riegle, Purdue's Anderson/Muncie student services coordinator. "A technology education is about applying scientific knowledge and theory to hands-on applications. This competition helps the students start thinking about how those theories apply to real-world situations."

Teams also submit a written report that includes design schematics, a budget, the scientific basis of the device and other information. They are judged on a combination of launch accuracy, creativity, egg protection and quality of the written report.

Participating schools are Delta High School, Muncie, Ind.; Greenfield Central High School, Greenfield, Ind.; Pendleton Heights High School, Pendleton, Ind.; Noblesville High School, Noblesville, Ind.; Highland High School, Anderson, Ind.; Blue River Valley High School, Mount Summit, Ind., and Eastern Hancock High School, Charlottesville, Ind.

Pendleton Heights won last year's competition. This year, for the first time, judges also will reward the team with the most original design.

The contest will be postponed in the event of inclement weather. This year's event is sponsored by the D.J. Angus-Scientech Educational Foundation, W.R. Dunkin & Sons, Perfecto Tool & Engineering Co., Hoosier Park, Anderson Federation of Teachers, Independent Federal Credit Union, Loose Funeral Home, Cornell Financial Group, and Nardco Heating & Air Conditioning.

Writer: Matt Holsapple, (765) 494-2073, mholsapple@purdue.edu

Source: David Riegle, (765) 285-5554, riegled@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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