Keeping something safe inside
Design & Technology · Early Years · The School
Something fragile
A fragile object breaks easily. An egg. A biscuit. A bauble. Your job is to protect it from a bump or a small drop. Use only materials you choose and put together yourself. Nothing bought ready-made is allowed.
Why soft helps
A hard, tight wrap can pass a hit straight through to the thing inside. A soft layer gives a little. Bubble wrap. Cotton wool. Scrunched paper. It soaks the hit up instead. That cushion is what really protects it.
Building a cushioned wrap
Wrap your fragile object in a soft layer first. Then add an outer layer to hold that soft layer in place, like a box or a bag. The soft part does the protecting. The outer part just holds it all together, so nothing shifts around inside.
Wrap an egg tightly in card, with no soft layer at all. Drop it gently onto a table, from low down. It cracks. Now wrap a second egg in scrunched paper first, then card round that. Drop it the same gentle way. It survives. Same egg. Same drop. Same outer card. The only difference was the soft layer underneath it. That layer is what really did the protecting, and the card alone could not.