Pedaling Protection MAKE A HELMET FOR AN EGG!    Do you know what a bicycle helmet will do for you if you have a bike accident? It will protect your head and your brain from serious injuries! What would happen if you dropped an egg that hadn't been cooked? It would break, right? Pretend your head is that egg! Would you like to keep your "egg head" from breaking? You can make a little "helmet" to protect your egg! Would you like to see how a helmet can protect you? Try this experiment!  Ask your parents or a friend to help you with this activity.  You will need these things: • a fresh egg • a plastic egg (if you have one) to practice fitting a helmet on to • paper towels • trash bags • things to make a helmet from, like paper, styrofoam, styrofoam packing peanuts, bubble wrap, cardboard, plastic, string, and tape  What would happen if you dropped a fresh egg from about as high as your shoulder? Would it break? If it's OK with your parents, try it! It'll be messy, so you might want to drop it onto a garbage bag. (Be sure to wash your hands with soap after you clean up the egg, because raw eggs carry samonella bacteria.)  What could you put around the egg to keep it from breaking when you dropped it?  Think about how a bike helmet protects a person's head. Look at your own bike helmet. How does it protect you? How does it keep your head safe?  Now, you can think about what to put around your egg to keep it safe like a bike helmet keeps your head safe.  You could use a plastic egg for practice as you design your egg helmet. Plastic eggs aren't as messy as real ones, and you can keep using your plastic egg over and over again.  After you make a helmet that protects your plastic egg, try it on a real egg! Put your helmet around the egg and drop the helmet with the egg in it from shoulder height.  Does your helmet keep the egg safe?  You might need to try design a few helmets before your helmet protects your egg! Good luck! This experiment was used by permission and based on directions from a website for teachers: http://www.classroom.com. If you want to try some easy experiments, check out friction and inertia in our "Pedaling Parts: How Bicycles Work" pages.   HOME | Preferences | Protection | Parts | Pros | Past | Pleasure | Performance | Puzzles | About Us | Bibliography | Links