Getting egg-cited bout STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) is easy when TECO is involved! Just take it from Abby Monteiro, a gifted math teacher at Alafia Elementary School in Valrico. Every year Abby reaches out to Tampa Electric to help her eggs-ecute an egg-cellent egg drop competition.
Usually with this classroom tradition, students design and build a container that can hold a raw egg. The goal is to keep the fragile egg from breaking when dropped from a high place.
To take the challenge to greater heights, Tampa Electric lineworkers volunteered to drop more than 100 egg containers created by kindergarteners through fifth graders from a TECO bucket truck. They started with a 30-foot drop, then raised the launch pad higher with each round of survivors. The higher our crew members raised the bucket, the louder the young audience got. Needless to say, by the time 40 creations survived the highest 65-foot drop, the screams of egg-citement could be heard from miles away.
Amidst all the fun, students learned about the laws of motion or kinetic energy. Not to mention the engineering design skills required to create the most resilient egg containers.
“It is a really fun way to incorporate science, math and engineering while covering many state standards,” said Abby. “We cannot thank TECO enough for their help with the event!”
Regardless of how each invention performed on March 8, you better believe it was an eggs-tra special day for Alafia Elementary students, teachers, parent volunteers and TECO team members alike.
