Free Team Building Activity: Egg Drop
This team building task gets teams working together, thinking creatively and managing their time.
Overview
Teams of between 3 and 5 participants are asked to make a structure from limited materials, which will prevent a raw egg from breaking when it is dropped by the facilitator from a height of 10ft. To download the Egg Drop instructions as a PDF click here.
Key themes: Teamwork, Creativity, Time Management.
Participants:6 – 50
Timing: 15 – 30 minutes
Prework and Equipment
- Buy enough eggs for one per team plus two spare.
- Buy straws (the thin ones if possible), enough for approx. 50 per team.
- Buy gaffer/cloth tape.
- Two rolls of kitchen towel (just in case someone makes a mess!).
Running the Activity
- Split the group into small teams (of 3 – 4).
- Introduce this as a creative challenge with very few rules.
- State that the objective is that each team must design and build a structure that will prevent their egg from breaking when dropped from a height of 10 feet onto a solid floor (do not give any guidance as to the style of design, if questioned simply restate the objective).
- The teams have just fifteen minutes in which to build their structure.
- Should more than one team succeed in protecting their egg, the winner will be determined by the fewest straws used.
- Issue each team with approximately 50 drinking straws, one egg (not boiled obviously) and a 1 meter length of gaffer/duck tape.
- Encourage the teams to work out of sight of one another.
- During the exercise walk around the teams giving time checks and monitoring progress.
- After 15 minutes call the teams together around the drop area.
- As the facilitator, you should drop the eggs but make sure you insist that the teams are satisfied with how you aim and make the drop or you may get the blame for a breakage. For a bit of fun you may also want to include a rocket launch countdown before you drop the eggs.
- Give a prize if necessary.
Review and Conclusions
- Ask the teams what happened during the design and construction phase.
- Ask whether their design changed and why.
- Identify any positive individual contributions that you noticed during the task.
- Ask what each team (starting with the least successful) would do differently if they were to repeat the exercise.
- The infinite variety of solutions to this exercise it make it an excellent creative energiser, after which teams are likely to be more open to creative thinking.
To download the the Egg Drop instructions as a PDF click here.
We hope you enjoy using this team building task and if you have any suggested activities for our blog do contact us.