Delivery for Trick-or-Treat

Challenge
Halloween is a hot topic floating around the communities. Families are debating whether to go door-to-door to interact with different households to experience Halloween.  What might this look like with social distancing guidelines in place? How can we safely administer candy to children without potentially spreading germs? Should Halloween be cancelled or is there an alternative that can be designed to continue the tradition? If you haven’t guessed it by now, this month’s challenge has to deal with distributing candy to trick-or-treaters in a sanitary manner. Your challenge is to create a contraption that will deliver candy from one area into a trick-or-treat bag at least 6 feet away. What possibilities can you think of to deliver the candy? Will your design be tough enough to deliver all shapes and sizes of candy? Can you replicate anything that already exists to help you out?

Your candy deliverer does have some criteria and constraints. As stated before, it must span a distance of 6 feet to maintain social distancing guidelines. The candy must also be easily obtainable by the trick-or-treater to put in their candy bag. Upon delivery, the candy shouldn’t be damaged for the trick-or-treater. Finally, the candy deliverer should be suitable for all types of different candy, not just the test candy.

Materials

• trick-or-treat bag
• cups
• string
• straws
• cardboard
• carboard tubes
• tape
• paperclips
• craft sticks
• paper
• Legos or building blocks
• rubber bands
• etc.

Hints and Tips for Success

1. Allow students planning and discussion time by having them experiment with the items to see how flexible, movable, and heavy they are. Also, let students know what the test candy is, how far 6 feet is, and the details of the trick-or-treat bag.
2. After experimenting, allow student groups to plan their design by drawing it out and labeling their materials being used. Include as many ways to improve their candy deliverers as needed.
3. For differentiation, adjust the amount of materials available and allowed to use, add any additional materials, take away certain materials, brainstorm with them different ideas (catapult, zip line, car powered by wind or a push, slide, airplane, etc.) , change the distance the candy travels, change the size of the trick-or-treat bag, use different candy. Adjustments could be made to make it more challenging or simpler.
4. Make sure to standardize the candy delivery with the same types of bags and the same distance traveled. The device should be as practical as possible (i.e. no one would want a complicated way to deliver candy all night).