Egg-static students at Mack Benn Jr. Elementary School learned about engineering and more when Newport News Shipbuilding dropped in for a visit Wednesday.

A selection of students gathered in the lunchroom with gifted resource teacher Liz Petry and three visitors from the defense contractor — Gordon Sproat, from its career pathways department, and engineers Louis Fisher and Ryan Woolridge.

The occasion? An egg-drop challenge. Ten teams scrambled to design and build a capsule that would be as kind as possible to an egg dropped from a stepladder.

Each team shelled out an imaginary dollar to purchase materials — things like sandwich bags (25 cents), different varieties of cardboard (5 to 15 cents), drinking straws (5 cents), toothpicks (five for 5 cents), rubber bands (5 cents), paper clips (two for 5 cents) and the all-important Dixie cups (which depleted budgets by one-fifth).

They were allotted time to design and then build their egg capsules. The most agonizing decision teams faced was apparently whether to opt for a descent-slowing parachute or splurge on shock absorption and let their egg plummet.

The company was visiting several Suffolk elementary schools, and for Petry, the essence of the challenge was to best Nansemond Parkway Elementary School, where students reportedly smashed only one egg.

“So we have to do better — no eggs broken” Petry instructed.

Gordon dropped the eggs one by one. Woolridge removed the protective structures and inspected for cracks. Fisher and Petry encouraged onlookers to contain their egg-citement.

Using a points system, teams were judged on the integrity of their egg, the cost of their capsule, and how close their egg landed to a target.

The Egg Heads, a crack team consisting of Seth Morris, Elisha Lassiter, Josiah Howell and Jamal Moser, emerged from the challenge victorious. But all students received bags to take home filled with pens, a calculator, hand sanitizer and a ruler.

Before the yolk of the classroom was removed, students watched a time-lapse video of the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford’s six-to-seven-year construction. “From when we first cut the steel to when we flooded the dry dock and floated it out,” Sproat said.

“Because we build ships to protect the sailors, they are building a structure to protect an egg,” he reasoned. “They are learning some physics, though they don’t realize it.”

Sprout spoke to the students about teamwork, remaining positive, speaking and listening and maintaining a good attendance record.

“In order to build that ship in six or seven years, we have to have good teamwork,” he said.

“Everyone has to come together for the ultimate goal that’s going to protect our country.”