"We want our kids to use their minds, give them opportunities to be creative and fail."
That pretty much summed up The Exploration Place egg drop challenge for Derrek Beam, father of seven-year-old participant, Tristan.
"It was super cool and my mom and dad told me I had to do it so I did and it was really fun and I got six points," Tristan said all in one breath.
Derrek explained that The Exploration Place is Tristan's favourite place to be - mostly because of the dinosaurs - so they would do the egg drop challenge first and then he could play.
Mom, Caroline, was pretty surprised Tristan stuck it out until the end of the challenge.
"He's not much of a guy for anything that has a lot of rules," she smiled.
It's important to encourage independent thinking in children when they're young, Caroline added.
"Because the older they get, the more they start thinking that they need to do things like the instructions say, and do things like their peers, whereas when they're younger their minds are more free, so they come up with some pretty ingenious things."
Most eggs were encased in a straw frame using tape and attached to garbage bag parachutes using string.
The second annual egg drop challenge came with a whole lot of ways to accumulate points including a Lone Wolf point for those old enough to create their own egg safety device to successfully drop an egg from the upper gallery to the Biome floor (about 15 feet), as well as bonus points for only using half the materials offered.
Participants got extra points for having their egg survive the drop completely in tact, less for those that were cracked but not leaking and no points for smashed eggs. More points were allotted for landing on target - read paper plate on a garbage bag - less points for missing the plate but landing on the garbage bag and no points for missing the bull's eye and the garbage bag completely.
There were more than 50 children who joined in the fun and prizes were awarded to the top three in each age category, including those six and under, those seven to 10 and those 11 and older.
