Picking a Patch of Pumpkins

Challenge
It's the month of Thanksgiving and what is better than pumpkin pie for dessert? But where do those pumpkins come from? How are they picked from the patch? When picked, how do they not get damaged? Can they still be used if they get damaged? Is there a way for them to be picked without being damaged? Enter the design challenge. Your goal is to design and build a device to harvest a pumpkin patch efficiently (without damaging the pumpkins and by how many turns it takes to harvest the entire pumpkin patch). 

Your pumpkin picker does have some criteria and constraints. The device must be used to completely pick up the pumpkins (not allowed to touch them with your hands), but you can manipulate the device with your hands. You can not damage the pumpkins (scratches, dents, holes, etc.).  You can pick up as many pumpkins as possible with one turn. Efficiency is measure by how many times it takes you to clear the patch and place them in a bin combined with your time. Finally, make sure the pumpkin patch is set the same for every trial.

Materials

• candy corn pumpkins (rolos, kisses)
• pipe cleaners
• craft sticks
• plastic spoons
• masking tape
• binder clips
• straws
• twist ties
• scissors
• play dough 
• bin for pumpkins

Hints and Tips for Success

1. Allow students planning and discussion time by having them experiment with the items to see what properties they have.
2. After experimenting, allow student groups to plan their final design. Include as many ways to improve their contraption as needed.
3. For differentiation, adjust or limit the amount of materials students can use, create a map of where to place the pumpkins, set money amounts to each item (calculate it in their efficiency total), make the pumpkin patch smaller, larger, or in different patterns. 
4. Have the pumpkin patch set up in an array pattern to allow students to easily pick up more than one pumpkin at a time. 
5. Students efficiency of their device is the amount of turns it takes to clear the entire pumpkin patch plus the amount of time it takes to do the task. Add in the price of the device if using that strategy.
6. Connect to ELA and Social Studies by researching food that was available to the Pilgrims compared to current day. Connect to science by going through the process of seed, to plant, to being turned into pie with the book, Seed, Sprout, Pumpkin, Pie by Jill Esbaum.
7. Other books to explore, non-fiction and fiction: Pumpkin Circle: The Story of a Garden by George Levenson, From Seed to Pumpkin by Wendy Pfeffner, The Pumpkin Book by Gail Gibbons, How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? by Margaret McNamara, or Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper