Students test their egg capsules at Batavia library

Ten fifth- through eighth- graders put to the test their designs of the perfect protection capsule for raw eggs Thursday at the Batavia Public Library's egg drop competition.

The students had about 45 minutes to design and perform practice drops containing plastic eggs before they went outside for the real test. The city's electric department brought a bucket truck for the dropping, with the department's Gary Starman taking the bucket up higher every time in response to the kids jumping and screaming, "Higher! Higher!" down below.

A total of five drops were completed, with egg survival diminishing with each plummet. High winds brought some eggs crashing to the concrete, sometimes with an audible splat.

Three capsules reached the final drop of 35 feet with the Farrell brothers, Kilian, 12, and Coleman, 14, winning in a tie. Both competed in the egg drop last year.

Coleman used a plastic water bottle as the main container, attached a piece of foam to the bottom to ease impact and created a parachute of several plastic grocery bags. Kilian used a margarine container containing two bricks of foam with a section carved out to hold the egg, making it "all snugly," he said. "The rest of it is a whole lot of tape, a whole lot of luck and a couple of plastic bags."

After the egg survived the first couple of drops, he knew he had a winning design. "I just went with my gut and hoped for the best," Kilian said.

For more library programs, visit bataviapubliclibrary.org.