Hamieh 1

Bassel Hamieh
Doctor Kenneth William Bagley
Freshman Inquiry - Design and Society
12 January 2014
Breaking Down Walls Take Two
I was very surprised that Dr. Bagley had asked us to do this challenge once more this year,
one that involved creating packages out of straws and tape that would protect an egg from
cracking when dropped several feet above the ground, even though we had done it a couple
months earlier. I knew that there had to have been a twist behind it and there was. In this
challenge, my teammates Steve and Eli and I had the freedom of choosing out of three different
options that revolved around different restrictions. The options varied in amounts of material,
which in return effected the amounts of writing we had to do for a reflection. The lower the
amounts of material provided in an option, the less writing we would have to do, assuming a
successful outcome in preserving the egg.
Steve, Eli, and I chose the option with the least amount of material provided because we
wanted a challenge. It included using only seven straws and three feet of tape to build our
package. If we were to succeed we would not have to write any paper, which was great to our
ears; however if it fails and the egg cracks, we would have to write a three-page reflection paper.
At first, we were all very terrified about having so little material to work with and did not seem
to work well as a team to come up with a solution.
As wasted time passed by, we began communicating ideas, which is where our different
personalities began to shine through. While Steve and Eli were very technical about their
approach, I found it almost to hard to lead and pursue that route and wanted to put all the

Hamieh 2
materials together, tape them, and hope for the best. I believed that this concept had a higher
chance of succeeding, since their idea involved the building of cubes. They planned to make a
cube around the egg out of the straws and sustain the egg in the middle of the cube by putting it
in a mesh net that is maid out of the thin paper coverings that each straw was in. Though it seems
like a great plan, the reason why I was against it was because I was certain that the amount of
material we had was too little to protect the egg at impact. Eventually as more time passed, I
became very pessimistic while my other teammates also began having their doubts. We all tried
to be positive and encourage ourselves when we caught each other being negative.
As for the building of the package, the tape was not enough to firmly keep the straws
taped to each other and we found ourselves constantly having to adjust the corners of our cube
since they would detach. All of a sudden in the midst of all the chaos, we hear Dr. Bagley shout,
five minutes left! Considering that we were only half way done with out package, we began
working sloppily in order to finish on time. We threw in a little bit of tape here and there and
hoped for the best. Finally done, at that point we knew that we had a very high chance at failing
this challenge. Incredibly however, we had loads of fun throughout this whole experience. As
negative as we were, we found it to be hilarious that we could not agree on strategies for our plan
or the fact that our package was coming apart. It was extremely interesting to look at the
dynamics between all three of us.
As each of us stepped up on the table to prepare for the dropping of the egg, the tape
came off of a major part of our package and when I turned to tell Steve and Eli, they already
knew it and looked at each other with troubled faces. While I raised my hand above the mark,
suspense built up, and I did not want to drop our egg. Nevertheless before I knew it, the egg was
in mid air and my eyes closed shut. Half a second later, which felt like an eternity, all I heard

Hamieh 3
was crack! - our egg had cracked. We stepped down with disappointment, knowing that we had
failed and even worse, knowing that we had to write a three page reflection paper on this
experience as a whole.
Some things that I regret as I look back at this activity is that my teammates and I only
looked at the science and physics behind building our package instead of considering scientific
facts about eggs. According to the webpage Inside Sciences article Sharper Curve, Stronger
Egg, breaking an egg is a lot easier along its side than at its tip, and more likely to be true as the
sharpness of the curve of the egg is on curvier side. This is a fact that would have helped us a lot
in finding more ways to decrease the likelihood of failing by orienting the egg and dispersing the
weight in a way that will land the egg on one of its corners. Adding on, some ideas and concepts
that we should have taken into consideration according to the Egg Drop Package Digital Image,
are that tighter packaging of any object will increase its safety and decrease the likelihood of any
damaging.
Reflecting back, I really appreciated this activity because it once again gave me the
opportunity to work hands on, with two great teammates, and in a fun environment. It forced me
to express my thoughts and provoke my teammates ideas, which is what design is all about. Mat
Hunter from "What Design Is and Why It Matters," explains that design is all about asking
questions and designing to fail; which is exactly what we were doing as a class. More important
of all, this activity allowed us to practice our communication skills. I am very content with the
outcome of this project even with our failure, because it brought the class together in sharing all
the different ideas we had. Since this course is all about design, this activity did great in teaching
the class to listen to others ideas and think activity and comparatively when creating a certain
object, no matter how meaningless it seems.

Hamieh 4
Works Cited
Egg Drop Package. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Jan. 2014.
<http://i44.tinypic.com/xdfeie.jpg>.
Hunter, Mat. "What Design Is and Why It Matters." Design Council. Design Council, n.d. Web.
14 Jan. 2014. <www.designcouncil.org.uk/about-design/What-design-is-and-why-it-
matters/>.
Lucibella, Mike. "Sharper Curve, Stronger Egg." Inside Science. American Institute of Physics, 4
Sept. 2012. Web. 11 Jan. 2014.