Parker Johnson, a Lakeview Elementary student, is going to New York in summer 2025 after winning the Tiger Science Challenge through the Rochester Institute of Technology.
A challenge made for deaf and hard-of-hearing students in North America between sixth and eighth grade, the top three students between the two categories win a full scholarship to the TechTigers Program, which is for deaf and hard-of-hearing students who are interested in science, technology, engineering and math.
Participants for the challenge have to drop an egg without it cracking. They have to design devices for one of two categories: highest drop, where the contestants with the top three heights of eggs dropped win and most creative where participants' devices for protecting their egg are judged based on ingenuity. Participants weren't allowed to slow the fall so parachutes were out.
Parker entered in the creative category, using a go-kart tire to protect the egg from a 25-foot drop. He won first place in the category of more than 100 entries.
"I race go-karts so I thought I'd use one (a tire)," Parker explained. He got his start in go-karting over the summer and had his first race at the end of the season. He got into it through his step dad who races go-karts and motorcycles. "I tried out a car that I borrowed and I absolutely loved it," Parker said."
His mom, Melanie Johnson, explained they had fabric coasters with pockets in them that Parker decided to put the egg into while connected to the tire to help it stay in place during the drop.
"We only did one test drop on our balcony, which if I recall correctly, we had measured and it was 15 feet," Melanie said. Each time they've dropped it in practice, the official drop and afterwards, the tire has always landed upright and bounces very little.
Parker did the official drop from the roof of Lakeview Elementary where Melanie recorded it.
"I was scared to see if it cracked but I was excited to see if it made it," Parker said.
WATCH: Parker Johnson's egg drop
The egg they used came from a friend of of theirs who has egg-laying hens.
"She opened up her fridge and she pulled out an egg carton and she pulled out one particular egg, which is the one that went off of the roof of the school," Melanie said. The egg was from the best laying hen she had and they had a good feeling about it.
A few weeks after submitting the video, Melanie got a text from Parker's hearing resource teacher saying they'd be telling him the results that day. When the results were shared, Parker's class and sister were secretly part of the video call.
"He went back to his classroom and started making a list of what to pack," Parker's step-dad, Brian Ens said. "This person's never been on a plane before, so he's got a whole bunch of firsts coming."
Lakeview's principal, Chuck Loewen, and the rest of school supported Parker.
"They were really supportive when they found out about the video and stood and watched and cheered for him and they were screaming when he read the email that he had come in first," Melanie said of Parker's classmates. "And then his principal made an announcement for the whole school and sent an email out to all the parents in the school so they made it a pretty big deal for him."
Ens said they were trying to not get their hopes up because of how many other people were participating in the challenge. In spite of that, Parker did say he got his hopes up.
"I thought it would be really fun to go to a new state," Parker said as one of the reasons he entered the competition. He's very interested in math and engineering and is looking forward to learning about those during the program.
Parker is planning on keeping the egg-protecting tire and keeping it on a shelf. He might miss one or two races during go-kart season because it runs around the same time as the summer program.
