E-Week gives engineering students, faculty chance to reach out

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By MELISSA LEE / Lincoln Journal Star

They had newspaper, rubber bands, glue, scissors, cardboard, a 56-foot drop and a cold, blustery day.

How on earth would their eggs survive?

An idea came to teammates Taylor Smith, Tommy Stormberg and Daniel Friedman, Elkhorn High sophomores attending E-Week at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Friday.

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Aaron Stubbendieck tosses "Ram Rod" (a package designed out of cardboard, newspaper and staws to protect an egg in the center) off the third floor of Othmer Hall as part of UNL's "E-Week" celebration Friday afternoon. E-Week has been a tradition since 1913 and aimed at promoting engineering accomplishments. (Michael Paulsen)

What about a parachute?

Genius.

They wrapped their egg in newspaper, then in a cardboard pillar, then taped the pillar to a flat slab of cardboard, then, using a homemade string of rubber bands, attached a floating sheet of newspaper on top.

“We need tape,” Tommy said, eyeing the wobbly cardboard pillar. “This isn’t gonna hold.”

Taylor taped liberally.

Then time was up. The threesome named their device Ramrod, turned it over to UNL engineering students and trooped outside Othmer Hall with the other Egg Drop competitors to see how their eggs would fare.

Watching from inside were a handful of the hundreds of other high schoolers from across the state invited to E-Week, a community outreach effort by UNL’s College of Engineering.

From the Othmer roof, a UNL student peered down and held out one of the entries. “Here’s Ed!”

Ed, whose egg was tucked under a triangle-shaped cardboard “roof,” brushed against the Othmer windows, then landed gently on the ground. Success.

“Here’s Bob!”

A quick descent and a loud thud. No luck for Bob.

“Here’s Ramrod!”

The Elkhorn teammates watched and waited.

“I could just see it go WHAM!” Daniel said. “I’ll be amazed if it actually floats.”

But float Ramrod did, landing softly on the pavement.

The teammates cheered. Just to make sure, they carefully unwrapped their egg.

No yolk.

“Ours survived!” Taylor said. “It was the parachute, definitely.”

Reach Melissa Lee at 473-2682 or mlee@journalstar.com.