It's part physics lesson, part fun. The annual Capitol Pumpkin Drop saw gourds galore go splat Thursday morning. But a few lucky entries made it from the second story to the ground without a mark.

Students from around the state have been perfecting their contraptions for weeks, hoping they'd come upon the magic material that would prevent their pumpkin from taking a pounding.

Megan Galici of Blennerhassett Middle School in Wood County relied a high fiber content to save her science experiment.

"We used dried grass and straw and newspaper,” she said.

Megan wasn't sure if "Charlie" as she and her partner named him, would survive. "I think we have a pretty good chance of winning."

Her partner was more positive. "I think we can Megan, not pretty good,” she said.

Branty Wilson, a student at Wayne Middle School, tried a different approach. "Bubble wrap, newspaper and play dough."

His teacher Kim Mills urged her students to marry science with imagination. "You find the things that are going to absorb the most shock and then it's a little bit of creativity on how you put the pumpkin in it,” Mills said.

Stefan Yoney and his group from Greenbrier West High School may have come up with the most creative and eco-friendly pumpkin packaging of the day.

"The pumpkin is inside of a hale bale." They tried it out at their school and not a nick. Yoney says helped execute their hay bale bundle but he can't take credit for the idea. "Actually Tyler Bales came up with it. Kind of ironic!"

The winner of the pumpkin drop is the project that is still intact and lands closest to the bull’s eye. But teachers say every student is actually a winner because they used what they learned in class and what they dreamed up in their mind to create their project.