'Eggs'perience teaches at fair's science competition
By Joey Pitchford
Published in News on October 8, 2017 1:45 AM
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News-Argus/JOEY PITCHFORD
Two students from Goldsboro High School build a device to keep an egg safe at the Wayne Regional Agricultural Fair Science Competition Friday. The competition featured teams from five Wayne County high schools.
Typically, before an egg can fly, it has to turn into a chicken.
That was not the case Friday evening, as teams from five Wayne County high schools competed in a science competition at the Wayne Regional Agricultural Fair. Each teams was tasked with constructing a protective vessel designed to keep its egg cargo intact while being tossed off the stage and over a mock burning building.
Formerly organized by Wayne Community College, this year's event was helmed by Wayne County Public Schools. Andy Forsleff, WCPS Science Lead, instructed the teams on their goal.
"There was a major hurricane recently, right? So there are a lot of people to you have to get food to right now," he said, pointing to a wooden arch made to look like a burning building. "And there's also a building on fire, which the hurricane did not put out, and you have to get over that."
The teams quickly got to work, using string, popsicle sticks, aluminum pie trays and other materials to build a protective shell around their eggs. Almost every team favored a UFO-like design, with two aluminum trays encircling the egg and supporting structures inside to absorb impact.
Soon, it was time to throw. One member from each team took the stage with the egg containers, and one-by-one they threw them over the burning building. Every team successfully made it over, and with no cracked eggs they returned for round two.
Round two involved moving the burning building back several feet, much to the chagrin of the students preparing to toss their eggs.
It proved to be a difficult change. The first team to attempt the throw accidentally sent their egg container careening off into the audience, landing among the attendees. The egg itself was still untouched.
In the end, Wayne School of Engineering was the only team that managed to make it over the burning building both times without their egg cracking.
They came in first place, followed by Spring Creek High in second, Rosewood High in third, Goldsboro High in fourth and C.B. Aycock in fifth.