October 30, 2014
Fourth grade students at Washington Discovery Academy conducted their annual 2nd Pumpkin Drop Thursday morning, part of the SLED (Science leaning through engineering design) program.
Teams of students were challenged to pack a 5 to 6 pound pumpkin in a cardboard box with packing materials of their choice and then dropping the container from 80 feet up in the air using Plymouth Fire Department’s aerial truck.
Students were allowed to bring whatever packing material they wanted from home. Some used cotton-balls, pillows, bubble wrap, foam and duck-tape. There were boxes with parachutes, bubble wrap covering the outside and even one with a wing.
The entire student body came out to watch the show.
Each of the 4th grade classroom teachers; Miss Gustafson, Ms. Herbeert and Mrs. Dreibilis climbed into the ladder bucket with firefighter Mike Jernstrom and about a half dozen cardboard boxes packed with the precious pumpkin cargo. The students then counted down and chanted “drop it, drop it.” One at a time the containers were dropped over the side of the bucket and landed forcibly on the playground.
Student teams then gathered up their boxes and opened them to find the results. Most of the pumpkins sustained major damage although a few had only a minor crack.
Following the experiment the students went back to class to write in their logs about the activity. The teams also discussed ways to improve their results with better materials and team work.