Archive: Arts & Entertainment

Gather some twigs, save those biodegradable cornstarch packing peanuts, round up the family and start designing – it’s Egg Drop time! The Sciencenter invites the community to participate in the 24th Annual Sciencenter Egg Drop contest on Sunday, April 5, at Center Ithaca on The Commons.

Itai Cohen, Assistant Professor of Physics at Cornell University, is the emcee for the 11 a.m. contest, and Jim Bell, Professor of Astronomy at Cornell University, will host the 3 p.m. drop.

The Sciencenter invites families to design and experiment with lightweight, biodegradable, reused or recycled materials in the “Earth Friendly” category. Contestants can wrap the egg in natural materials like pinecones instead of bubble wrap or other synthetic materials to protect it from breaking when it is dropped eight meters onto a concrete floor. Anything that can be placed in a compost pile will be acceptable in the “Most Earth Friendly,” category but it has to be non-messy and odor-free. No styrofoam, bubble wrap or plastic will be accepted in this category, even though these materials are "recyclable." A full list of acceptable materials, including plant materials, paper, and wood shavings, is available on the Sciencenter web site, www.sciencenter.org.

The Egg Drop provides individuals and groups with an opportunity to egg-cell in both the sciences and the arts. The event, which started in 1985, now draws contestants and visitors from many surrounding areas, including Pennsylvania. In previous years, the Sciencenter welcomed entries from Massachusetts and Switzerland! An estimated 1,200 people attend the day-long community event. Every year, approximately 300 participants accept the challenge, with about 70 percent of the entries surviving the drop. The unsuccessful efforts are crowd pleasers, with a special winning category dedicated to those contestants who dare to dream big, but who may end up with a spectacular “splat.”

Aside from “Best Unsuccessful Effort” and “Most Earth Friendly," prizes are also awarded in the following categories: best engineering design, best free fall, best parachute/slow descent, and best in age category. Contestants can enter in various age groups, including pre-school to first grade, second to third grade, fourth to fifth grade, sixth to eleventh grade, twelfth grade to adult. Group and family entries are encouraged in the “Family/Group” category.

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