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Long Island Kids Learn About Science, Engineering With Annual Egg Drop

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- Some kids on Long Island got a chance to take part in a fun competition and learn about science at the same time.

As CBS2's Dick Brennan reported, the Cradle of Aviation Museum in Garden City held its annual egg drop on Wednesday.

Dozens of grade school kids showed off their scientific skills by dropping cushioned eggs from 30 feet above.

"The way that they win is that have to hit the target and their egg has to survive," Kerri MacKay told TV 10/55 Long Island Bureau Chief Richard Rose.

Judges and kids literally walked on eggshells as some clever designs failed, but the kids did score points for unique approaches to create their nest eggs.

"It's a pepper, kind of a bell pepper that I covered in duct tape," one girl said.

From orange juice containers to mini-moon landers, the youngsters spent weeks trying to come up with the perfect design.

"We tried to do an orange, but after a week it dried up," Sofia Amador said.

Amador and her teammate Arwen Lopez settled on a cone shape and scored a near bullseye.

"It felt amazing to know it was somewhere in the target and also really satisfying it was not cracked," Lopez said.

Fifth grader Mia Wasnosski landed her egg right on the bullseye.

"I had a lot of cotton balls in there. I think that was the key that supported it," Wasnosski said.

Mia's teacher said besides trying to hit the bullseye, the competition set a good example of how to have fun while learning something new.

"We did some minor lessons on how gravity affects objects," Vincente Interrante, a teacher at Mineola Middle School said, "It teaches the kids more of an engineering design. It allows the kids to explore using a creative design."

Winners got medals for first, second, and third, and their eggs got to live on as a possible snack just in case all that hard work made the kids 'egg-stra' hungry.

 

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