[May 08, 2013] At Mifflin, chips fall where they may, intact Tweet May 08, 2013 (Reading Eagle - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Algebra took a unique twist during a recent lesson in Sara Eastman's sixth-grade class at Gov. Mifflin Intermediate School. There was some volleyball, some smashing packages against the walls and floor oh yeah, and eating potato chips. A lot of potato chips. All of it was in pursuit of constructing mailable packages that could keep a chip intact. Playing volleyball with and smashing the packages were part of the testing. The class was one of 82 across the country participating in the Pringles Challenge, organized by a school in North Carolina. The goal is for students to find the smallest and lightest package that can transport a Pringles-brand chip to another class through the mail in one piece. "I read about it on Twitter and thought: 'Oh, this would be something cool, because these guys have been learning about volume and surface area in class,' " said Eastman. Mifflin students broke into teams and sent two packages to a home school in Texas, which sent its chips to Mifflin. Both Mifflin groups' chips arrived unscathed. Students from the two groups said they had a friendly competition between them. "We had quite a bit of game talk about the other groups failing," said Alex Coldren, one of the students. But there was a lot of idea sharing among the factions. Both used iPod cases as a shell for the package, an idea one of the students, Taylor Turner, came up with after thinking that something designed to protect an expensive electronic device could probably handle a potato chip. "They (iPods) have to be shipped, and iPod cases need to protect them," she said. The competition uses Pringles chips because, unlike most other brands, they are uniform. Students said they found the unique curve of the chips an added challenge. "It's such an awkward shape," said Sam Ney. "If we would have used a regular potato chip it would have been easier." Students said they went through a lot of trial and error. After placing the chips in the iPod cases, they padded the insides with items like packing peanuts and cotton balls. Because the packages had to be sent to Texas by mail, the packages also had to comply with United States Postal Service regulations. That meant students were limited to certain shapes and sizes. Contact Liam Migdail-Smith: 610-371-5022 or [email protected]. ___ (c)2013 the Reading Eagle (Reading, Pa.) Visit the Reading Eagle (Reading, Pa.) at readingeagle.com Distributed by MCT Information Services [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]