An egg-cellent activity

Editor's note: Fifth-grade Bellevue Elementary School students Kali Lindsey and Stella Mira expressed a deep interest in journalism when speaking with Register reporter Andy Ouriel during a Careers on Display event the school hosted in November. At the request of the two students, Ouriel returned to the school on Friday when the students recapped a science event, which included taking photos to capture the moments. BELLEVUE — Bellevue Elementary School's fifth-grade students took part in an egg drop event on Friday from the school's grounds. The egg drop is a hands-on STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) activity in which students work in teams to design and build protective containers that would keep a raw egg from breaking when dropped from the fire department's ladder truck. Students had to plan within a budget, "purchase" materials, test ideas and apply concepts related to force, motion and impact. Finally, on Friday, each student handed his/her egg project to a firefighter stationed in the ladder truck's bucket. The firefighter then rose up several stories high, reached an apex and began dropping each egg to test which ones survived and which ones didn't, as evidenced by them cracking. The project encouraged teamwork, problem-solving, creativity and engineering design skills while giving students a fun, real-world learning experience to wrap up the school year. Educators thanked Bellevue firefighters, noting how they're so generous to come to our school and help us with this project each year. Students, like us, absolutely love getting to work with them and watching the egg drops from their ladder truck. Thank you to our teachers and city firefighters for making this event possible for our classmates and us.