Brayden's Engineer Project

Oh how I hate science projects. I hated them as a kid and my opinion of them haven't changed. I don't mind the kids doing their own little science projects they have seen in books or on the internet but I hate the whole having to keep track of everything, remember to take pictures, putting the board together using the scientific method and being on a time crunch, etc.

This year it was a requirement for Brayden to choose between a science project or engineer. The engineer project was to have the child pick a problem or something he doesn't like to do and make something to do it for him or easier to do it. What???? It took us a few days to come up with something. 

One of Brayden's chores is to collect the chicken eggs everyday for me. If we keep the saw dust full in their nesting boxes the eggs are generally clean and don't need washed. But every so often it gets low, the eggs are dirty and Brayden has to wash them. He doesn't like doing that. So he decided to make his own egg washer.   

We went to the dollar store and bought a wire basket and few different sponge scrubbers in different roughness. 

He then took the scrubbers, cut them to his desired length and then zip tied them to the basket. 

Once his basket was ready he started his chores by collecting the eggs in the morning. 

The eggs weren't to dirty so he rolled them around is some fresh poop. Nasty! 

We wanted the poop to be dried on so we continued his project after school. 

He put one egg in his basket and turned the water on to soak the sponges. He then gently shook the basket to get the egg to roll around the sponges and "scrub" itself. 

It worked but it took longer than if he would have just washed the egg with his hands. 

So he put 2 eggs in to see if he could do it a little faster. 

Oops! The eggs hit each other and cracked!

So using more sponges Brayden set up a barrier to keep them from hitting each other. 

We had another success but was still taking more time than if he had done it with his hands. 

So he rigged up one more separation so he could do 3 eggs at a time. 

Brayden really had to shake the basket with all 3 eggs inside. He was afraid he'd shake on out. So he added a cover to keep that from happening.  

Then he could shake, shake, shake. 

It worked! He got all the eggs clean. He felt it was faster this way then if he had to wash them all by hand. He says this engineering project is a success! It is something he will continue to use when he has to wash eggs. If there was something else he could change to make it even better it would be somehow stop the water in the sponges from splashing out when he shook the basket, think a wet dog!  

Then came to fun part of putting everything together. 

Brayden ended up being the only kid at school to do an engineering project. Everyone else chose science. He won 1st place by default and also gets to go to regionals if he chooses. One of the judges that judged regionals last year was at Braydens school and said he was very impressed with his project. The project was suppose to be about one of his chores or jobs and to create something to improve it and then make changes to make it better. Brayden did exactly that. It was also obviously done by a 4th grader and NOT mom or dad. Brayden did a great job explaining what he used to create it and why. Good job Brayden!!