I thought we would color progressively fewer Easter eggs as my kids got older, but it turns out they just got more creative. Now we have to have at least five dozen, minimum.

Fortunately, eggs are cheap enough, but what in the world do you do with five dozen boiled eggs once Easter is over? In the past we’ve launched them in our potato gun, or given them away. They don’t keep too long once they’ve been boiled, so I’m always up for new ideas.

This year we’re using them for a physical science experiment from A Reason For Science, where we will learn about energy, inertia, and how those apply to car safety. So, buckle up and join us on our incredible eggmobile adventure!

This is lesson 18 in the Level H Science book. The first thing you will need to do, is decide if your kids want to work in teams or each craft their own eggmobile. Do they want some friendly competition, or would they have more fun with it being a cooperative effort? If they want to compete, you can see whose eggmobile goes the farthest, or whose “passenger” stays intact from the tallest ramp. Let their imaginations take over and get creative. I opted to use boiled eggs because we had them on hand, but using raw eggs works fine and may be even better at creating a lasting impression … I’d just recommend you move the racing part outside where clean-up is easier!

Each team will need:

• four craft sticks
• a handful of packing peanuts
• an egg
• four toy cars
• string
• tape

Have your kids discuss and/or draw out different vehicle designs, and get busy. You might want to set a certain amount of time for crafting their eggmobiles.

Meanwhile, find something to use for a ramp. Pieces of cardboard or wood will work well; something with an adjustable incline would be perfect.

Take turns racing the eggmobile(s) down the ramp. If the “passenger” egg survives, make the ramp a little steeper until none of the eggs are intact at the end.

Down to the nitty-gritty … so what just happened?

Explain that when you lifted the car to the top of the ramp, you defied that little thing called gravity and in turn gave your car potential energy. Then, by releasing the eggmobile, it changed into kinetic (moving) energy. What happens to all that energy? According to Newton’s law of inertia, when an object is moving, it will stay moving until it’s acted on by another force. If you have a nice smooth runway for your eggmobile, that force might be the wind, or an incline, or just eventually running out of the energy to keep propelling it forward. Maybe you wanted to see your egg splat, or you were so confident in your design you put your ramp next to a wall. That would be a quick counter-force stopping your eggmobile. If the car was well-designed, most of the force should have been absorbed without harming your “passenger” egg.

This would be a good time to talk about why the cars we drive every day have seat belts. What would have happened to your egg if it wasn’t strapped, taped, tied, or otherwise held in? You might have your kids send an unrestrained egg down the ramp and find out: compare the two eggs and see which one sustained the most damage. If you used a raw egg and it survived the crash, open it up and see if the yolk is broken even though the shell held up. This would help your kids understand why people can have brain injuries even when they appear unharmed on the outside.

Wrap up your adventure by explaining that even though forces can’t be destroyed, they can be transferred or absorbed by other objects. Some of those objects—like seat belts, or those knee pads and helmets your kids never want to wear!—can be put in place for our safety.

This brings us to the “Food for Thought” section (part of every lesson in A Reason For Science) where you will turn with your kids to Proverbs 2:7-8 and discuss how God shields and protects us. The guidelines He gives us to follow are for our happiness and protection. It would seem silly to just roll our egg down the ramp and expect it to be undamaged at the bottom. Without thought, planning, and limits in our lives, though, we could roll through life just as recklessly.

At the close of this lesson, not only will your children have a better understanding of inertia, energy, and forces, but our experiment can also help them see why the Bible sets limits on our behavior. Simple things like wearing seat belts, or following other safety guidelines our parents or another authority figure gave us, can protect us (even if we don’t always understand the “why” of it at the time). The same is true of instruction we find in God’s Word. We are His children; His commands are intended to keep us safe.