QAUSUITTUQ/RESOLUTE
An egg in a square-bottomed basket dropped, with a mini-parachute, more than two metres before breaking, cushioned with the novel idea five students in Resolute imagined.
Qarmartalik School science teacher Charlie Barker, left, helps Grade 6 student Devon Manik drop an egg from seven feet (2.1 metres) during a Skills Canada Nunavut competition held in Resolute on Feb. 26. - photo courtesy of Vince Pickett
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The contraption Qarmartalik School Grade 7 student Justin McDonald, Grade 6 students Devon Manik and Sophie Idlout as well as Grade 12 students Alica Manik and Aaron Manik built was for the egg drop competition with Skills Canada Nunavut.
Their egg dropped nine feet or 2.7 metres before breaking, tying the territorial record with Hall Beach for the highest drop, said Christine Berube, program co-ordinator with Skills Canada Nunavut. Each team of five or six students, from varying grades, are given a set list of items with which they can build contraptions to cushion the egg's drop. The items include paper cups, cotton balls, two sheets of paper, little bit of tape, Popsicle sticks and little pieces of wood, explained Berube. She said the eggs were then put in their containers and dropped from increasing heights until they broke.
Grade 6 teacher Sylvia Gabriel said the winning team constructed a parachute out of paper and attached popsicle sticks at the bottom of the paper cup, sort of like skis, thus preventing it from tipping when it fell. When eggs from other groups were dropped, she added, the egg would tip, fall out and break.
"After they started testing it out, then I could see why theirs was winning – because of the aerodynamics of it, the way they had made their parachute," said Gabrield. "It was much longer than the others and they had a greater wingspan. I knew after they did the first two drops they had a very sturdy contraptions."
She added she was very happy for the students who won.
Devon said he was "very surprised" he won.
"It was very exciting," he said.
Fellow classmate Idlout said it was "super fun."
The competition enables the students to use the scientific principles they've been studying, said Gabriel. As the groups were not segregated into grades, it enabled a greater interaction amongst the students, she said.
"It was just fun to make something," said Gabriel. "It's very important for the kids to realize this is why they study things in science; everything has a practical use."
