Students from the St. Mary's Assumption BVM School in West Grove, PA got some valuable lessons in physics when they participated in their very first egg drop, with a little help from the West Grove Fire Company.

Designed to get students from all grades thinking about physics, egg drops make great team exercises, with each team working to design and build containers that will help prevent an egg from breaking when dropped from various heights.

The student's projects were first dropped from heights ranging from five to fifteen feet inside the school's auditorium. The "surviving" teams then moved to the final height -- a 50 foot drop from the top of the West Grove Fire Company's Ladder 22.

Hauled to the top in a rigged basked, each project was dropped while the entire student body served as witnesses. Some 12 projects managed to protect the egg, but dozens of eggs were broken. Three projects designed by St. Mary's teachers were also dropped from 50 feet -- two of those did not survive.

The WGFC participates in a variety of projects with area schools. Egg drops have been performed at the Avon Grove Middle School for more than 15 years. And community fire safety education sessions run by the WGFC are witnessed by hundreds of Avon Grove area students each year.