Young children are naturally curious and passionate about learning (Raffini, 1993). In their pursuit of knowledge, they’re prone to poking, pulling, tasting, pounding, shaking, and experimenting. “From birth, children want to learn and they naturally seek out problems to solve” (Lind, 1999, p. 79).

Duckworth (1987) refers to “knowing the right answer” as a passive virtue and discusses some of its limitations. “Knowing the right answer,” she says, “requires no decisions, carries no risks, and makes no demands. It is automatic. It is thoughtless” (p. 64). A far more important objective is to help children realize that answers about the world can be discovered through their own investigations.

Developing new concepts or ideas is an active process and usually begins with child-centered inquiry, which focuses on the asking of questions relevant to the child. While inquiry involves a number of science-related activities and skills, “the focus is on the active search for knowledge or understanding to satisfy students’ curiosity” (Lind, 1999, p. 79).

Preschool age children are inquisitive and open-minded, perfect traits for budding young scientists! Science at a preschool level is a lot of fun, kids are truly mesmerized by chemical reactions, love exploring nature, and jump to build things.

Compel your kids to get creative, question, reason and learn with this fun and engaging activity!

Steps:

1. The goal is simple: design and build a system that will protect an egg from a 1 meter (3.3 feet) drop. Eggs that smash or crack fail the test while eggs that survive without a scratch pass!

2. Build your egg protectors from resources such as: Plastic straws, Popsicle sticks, Tape, Recycled paper, Glue, Plastic bags, Boxes, Used material, Plastic containers, Cotton or any other items you may think of!

3. Make sure to have a lot of paper napkins at hand!

Note to the parents: The aim of the activity is to create something that can absorb the energy the egg gathers as it accelerates towards the ground. A hard surface will crack the egg so you have to think carefully about how you can protect it. Something that will cushion the egg at the end of its fall is a good place to start, you want the egg to decelerate slowly so it doesn't crack or smash all over the ground. You'll need to run a few trials so have some eggs ready as guinea pigs, those that don’t survive will at least be comforted knowing they were smashed for a good cause, and if not, you can at least have scrambled eggs for dinner right?