ANDERSON — Area teenagers have been dabbling in biological warfare after school, and on Friday they unveiled their secret weapons.

But the machines aren’t set to kill. They just need to send an egg flying safely through the air about 25 meters.

It took some science skills for high school students to participate in the fifth annual Iron Egg Launch Design Competition sponsored by the Purdue College of Technology and Anderson/Muncie and held at the Anderson University Flagship Center on Friday.

In the competition, groups of between four and six students designed and built a machine to launch a raw egg at a target 25 meters away. Students also had to design a device to protect the egg, because even just a cracked shell meant a lower score.

Teams were judged on accuracy, how secure they kept the egg and a written report.

Teams from Delta High School took grand champion and second place. Highland High School’s team won an honor for their Web page detailing the project.

The team from Pendleton Heights built a launcher that used compressed air or fire the egg.

“We did better than expected,” team member Tyler Sullivan said.

Highland High School used a similar pressure-driven launcher. The team scored a direct hit of the target on its third and final attempt.

“I think we did pretty good,” junior Devon Poole said.

His team members had been meeting after school for the past five weeks testing the machine and brushing up on their understanding of physics principles like pressure and aerodynamics.

One variable the team couldn’t easily predict was the wind, which affected their accuracy a bit, Poole said.

“It’s a pretty big factor.”