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Habersham School students hold their eggs, then let them go
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Fifth-graders Payton Graham and Abigail Aldridge celebrate advancing to the next round of the Habersham Schools egg drop contest. - photo by Photo by Paul Floeckher

The Habersham School’s annual egg drop had a familiar look to it Thursday.

However, rather than being a competition among middle and high school students as in years past, this year’s was for elementary-school students.

Students in third-fifth grades created contraptions to protect a raw egg from breaking in a fall. The former Effingham Christian School is now a pre-kindergarten-fifth grade campus after merging with Savannah’s Habersham School last year.

Although the competitors were younger than in years past, the organizers saw no shortage of creativity.

“It took a lot of ingenuity to think through how to create those so that the egg would survive,” said fifth-grade teacher and egg drop coordinator Casey Fields.

For the second straight year, the students’ creations were dropped from a Rincon Fire Department ladder truck. The ladder began 25 feet off for the ground for the first round, and extended to 50 for the second round and 75 for the final two rounds.

Students made their egg protectors outside of regular class time. Participation was voluntary, and students could work individually or in pairs.

Of the 16 contraptions entered, 10 survived all four rounds without the egg breaking. To break the tie, extra points were awarded to the lightest and smallest entries.

Though some students’ entries were more elaborate, third-grader Jayden Kelly’s was the most effective. He won the competition utilizing a lightweight, plastic food-storage container, with bubble-wrap and tape inside to protect the egg.

“How I got (the idea) was, stuff around the house,” he said.

Fifth-grade duo Thomas Graham and Trey Stewart came in second place, and fourth-graders Grace Delk and Mackenzie McIntrye teamed up to take third.

In designing their egg drop entries, the students apply concepts from several academic subjects, such as science, math and art.

“We challenge them at this school to be creative and to think, as opposed to telling them what to think,” said Ken Vaughn, director of Habersham’s Rincon campus.

“It’s not just about, how do I think when I’m reading a book in literature or how do I think when I’m in math?” Fields said. “But how do I use thinking skills and apply them to every aspect of life?”