Way back in March, just as we were starting to plan for a large round of designing and building of lights, the schools were closed due to the pandemic. In New Brunswick, we did not know for how long. Eventually, it was decided that students would proceed to the next class/level regardless of their work or lack thereof while schools were closed.
Students once the elation of classes being shut down subsided and the realization of the seriousness of the pandemic both locally and globally, they started to feel a loss of control and power. Interestingly, they used the initiative to solve real problems for real people that they practiced for the lights and applied it to the pandemic.
One group of kids noticed that their grandma could travel through the grocery store without touching anything that she did not take home, except the handle for the milk fridge. So they created a little hook to open the door to give another degree of separation between them and a contaminated surface.
