Community Calculates Candy Corn Count at Halloween Pop-Up

To celebrate Halloween this year, we combined a classic holiday candy with some serious spatial thinking during a Pop-Up in the Bridgeside lobby, enticing even the most frightening of goblins and ghouls to get together and share in the sweet treat of a guessing game. 

Participants were given a ruler and invited to guess how many candy corn pieces were in a jar. From 175 pieces all the way to 3,462 – and everything in between – the guesses spanned quite the spectrum. The closest to the correct answer was actually submitted by Chloe Prejean, a physical therapy (PT) student, who guessed 802 pieces (805 was the actual total). She won bragging rights, along with the entire jar of candy corn and a Starbucks gift card!

Apparently, not everyone was aware that an approximate method to calculate the number of sweets in a jar is to multiply the number along the width and length of the base by the number of sweets in the height of the jar (hence, the ruler). 

Nonetheless, attendees enjoyed the break in the day to connect with others and eat some cupcakes while doing so!