As a part of space week we had a project called EGGSTRONAUT. It was a different project in which children were supposed to design a parachute for an EGG. Egg was our astronaut and we have to save him. The parachute design should such that the egg will land from terrace without breaking. To make it more interesting we had put one stall in which different material for the parachute were available. Different material like: newspaper, foam, sponge, card board pieces, strings etc.. All material had specific cost. Per team budget was given RS 100/-. There was constraint on dimension and weight of the parachute. All these constraint made it more interesting.
As soon as all instructions were given and teams were formed children started working on it. It was full of excitement all around. Everybody busy discussing their design, calculating the cost of the material, which material to choose? How much to use? I was enjoying observing all of them. Few purchased at one go all material, spend full money and then started designing and making, full calculated the cost with accuracy and spend time in designing and analysing the material and then bought, Few were focusing on saving money and using minimum material. One project, same instructions, same budget, same material but approach, and thought process were so different.
Similarly while making also few finished making so fast and more focused on colouring the parachute, few took more time in decorating the egg as astronaut while few were more emphasizing on ensuring the protection of egg. I was amazed to see variety within one goal and also the space given by facilitator to all. Once parachute were ready we checked them for the size and weight. Nobody’s parachute was rejected. We started testing them. One of the members from each team one by one dropped their parachute from terrace and others were waiting down for their parachute to come. From five team four teams egg got cracked that means astronaut could not survive but one egg was safe. That was not so important but the learning and fun they had throughout the project caught my attention.
Lets see one video from the project where child talks about the design of her parachute: