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Overview: In the book Little Lumpty, Lumpty the egg climbs the same wall that Humpty Dumpty climbed, but gets scared that he will fall and cries for help. Children will design, build, and redesign egg catchers to keep Lumpty from breaking when he falls.
Booklink: Little Lumpty by Miko Imai, Candlewick Press, 1994. ISBN 1-56402-829-1
Science Activity Link: Teams of 3 to 4 children will work together to design and construct an egg catcher out of 8 sheets of recycled paper and 50 cm of masking tape. Their egg will be dropped into the catcher from increasing heights at ½ m intervals, up to a height of 2 m. After testing their egg catcher, they will consider strategies for redesign to improve performance.
Objective: Children will design, construct, and redesign a technological device to prevent an egg from breaking as it is dropped from increasing heights.
Science Processes and Content: Processes-observing, communicating, predicting, interpreting data, inferring, measuring, redesigning, and model building. Content-properties of materials, building models, technology, and science as a human endeavor.
National Science Education Standards: Unifying Concepts and Processes, (1) Science as Inquiry, (2) Physical Science, (5) Science and Technology, (7) History and Nature of Science
Materials: Book Little Lumpty, 8 to 10 fresh eggs, masking tape, 2 to 3 metersticks, scissors, newspapers or plastic to cover the floor in the egg drop area, 8 ½ x 11 sheets of paper, markers.
Procedure:
1. Begin by reading about 2/3 of the book to the page that begins,
"'How can we save him?' asked an old man." Discuss with the children what could be done to save Lumpty. Read the remainder of the book after the activity is completed.
2. Group the children into teams of 3. Give each team 8 sheets of recycled paper, 50 cm of masking tape, and one pair of scissors. Explain that they are to use these materials, and these materials only, to construct an egg catcher that will keep an egg from breaking as it is dropped from increasing heights, beginning at one meter and at intervals of ½ meter thereafter. Encourage each team to design their very own catcher and construct it in whatever way they think is best. The egg catcher must be free standing. Allow about 15 to 20 minutes for building.
3. Ask the teams to describe how they designed their egg catchers. Why did they make it the way they did?
4. Now give each team one egg and ask them to decorate it with a Lumpty face.
5. Lay some newspapers or plastic on the floor in the egg drop zone. Have some paper towels handy for clean-up. While you measure one meter from the top of each egg catcher, have a team member aim and drop their egg into the egg catcher. If the egg survives without a break or crack, have them (or you) drop it two more times, once from 1 1/2 meters and then from 2 meters. You may award prizes to the teams whose eggs survive drops of 2 meters or more.
6. Discuss with the children ways they could redesign their egg catchers to make them better. Tell them that engineers who make cars, bicycles, toys and other things we use in our lives design, test,and redesign the very same way they did when they made their egg catchers.
7. Now return to finish reading Little Lumpty. Discuss the story with the children.
Related Books:
Leo Cockroach…Toy Tester by Kevin O'Malley, Walker and Company, 1999. ISBN 0-8027-7604-3
Milo's Great Invention by Andrew Clements, Steck-Vaughn Company, 1998. ISBN 0-8172-7288-7
Inventors Making Things Better by Andrew Clements, Steck-Vaughn Company, 1998. ISBN 0-8172-7289-5
Eggbert by Tim Ross, The Putnam and Grosset Group, 1994. ISBN 0-698-11444-2
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