Since this activity is designed to encourage students to collaborate and help each other by sharing ideas, students will work in pairs.

Decide How Many Apple Trappers To Build

We suggest each student build their own Apple Trapper. Each Apple Trapper requires at least ten pieces of paper to experiment with and to construct their invention. If paper resources are limited, students can work in teams and create a single Apple Trapper together.

Prepare Stickers

Cut the stickers in half so that they are about 1.5 inches in length. Each student building an Apple Trapper will need at least 14 of these half-size stickers (or pieces of tape).

Engineering Teacher Tip

The Apple Trapper Inspiration printouts are for students who are stumped or frustrated by the task of building an Apple Trapper. We suggest letting students try building on their own first. You can provide these printouts to those who may need additional help.

Plan the Location of the Apple Orchard (Younger Grades Only)

In the Younger Grades version of the activity, we suggest setting up one large "Apple Orchard" where students can gather around and test their inventions. Each student will make an "apple" from colored construction paper so the "Apple Orchard" needs to be large enough to fit all the "apples." A large table would work well.