Students got egg-tremely egg-cited each time they discovered their egg container survived a drop from a Tampa Electric bucket truck.
When Abby Monteiro started teaching gifted math at Alafia Elementary, she knew she needed to hatch a plan to get students egg-cited bout STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). So, she decided to put a special twist on the classic egg drop project.
If you’re not familiar with the time-honored classroom tradition - the idea is for students to design and build a container that can hold a raw egg and keep it from breaking when dropped from a high place.
The twist? Well, that’s where Tampa Electric comes in. Abby contacted us to see if we were game to bring this challenge to greater heights. Fifty-five feet to be exact. That’s the highest-level Eastern Service Area Lineworker Justin Pettys and Apprentice Dalton Katrein raised the bucket truck to launch 115 egg containers created by kindergarteners through fifth graders.
Justin and Dalton started with a 15-foot drop. The launch pad went higher with each round of survivors. The higher our crew members raised the bucket, the louder the gleeful screams. In fact, with all the joyful shouts and laughter outside the Valrico school, it was hard to tell the kids were actually learning about the laws of motion or kinetic energy. But by the looks of the creative creations, you could tell each competitor learned about the engineering design process. Not to mention how each broken egg served up a lesson in failure.
So how did the young engineers do? Click the video above to see who was hard to beat, who was cracking jokes and why the morning of March 10 was eggs-tra special for Alafia Elementary students, teachers and TECO team members alike.
Eastern Service Area Lineworker Justin Pettys and Apprentice Dalton Katrein looked forward to bringing smiles to students’ faces during their efforts to “break some eggs” at Alafia Elementary.
Alafia Elementary students designed and built containers to hold raw eggs. But can their creations survive a 55-foot drop from a Tampa Electric bucket truck?
Gifted Math Teacher Abby Monteiro spearheaded the STEM egg drop competition at Alafia Elementary.
A drone's view of Tampa Electric's role in the egg drop competition at Alafia Elementary on Friday, March 10.
