CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Middle and high school students flocked to GoMart Ballpark in Charleston Thursday morning and watched their pumpkins fall 50 feet from the sky to the ground below.

Students who attend the annual Capital City Pumpkin Drop put on by Bridge Valley Community and Technology College are tasked with building an enclosure from recycled materials that would save their pumpkins from busting open after the fall.

“We had milk jugs, cans, pillows, water bottles, and then we had cardboard between each layer so it stabilized the layers.” said Teresa Crider, a student at Riverside High School.

Lilian Stewart, who was in a group with Crider, says the moment before the drop was tense.

“It was scary at first because when they were pulling it up, it kept shaking the box so I didn’t know if it would fully make it up.

While the girl’s pumpkin was not one that that survived the drop, Crider says the project and field trip were profitable.

“I think it was really cool because it was really hands on and I like hands on stuff better,” she said. “It was really cool to be able to bring in our own stuff and decide how we wanted to make it and then completely build it on our own.”

Dan Cosgrove, a teacher at Calhoun County Middle School, made the 60-mile drive down to Charleston to compete. He says this was a way to teach his students something they didn’t think they’d learn in middle school.

“They weren’t ready for getting a dose of physics,” Cosgrove said. “We actually gave them a physics class on acceleration so we could figure out exactly how fast that pumpkin would be dropped from 50 feet high.”

Cosgrove says it’s good to compete for a trophy, but the entire three-day process of his students working through issues together to build something was the most important lesson.

“The educational aspect was very important and teamwork also. It was all up to them to put this together, so they had to work together and brainstorm and have a little bit of conflicts but were able to work through it and came up with their design,” he said. “To me, it didn’t really matter to me what happened here. The whole process was a success.”