5 DIY STEM Costumes You Can Make With a Cardboard Box
What’s better than shopping for an awesome Halloween costume? Making one yourself! By upcycling some things around your home and putting your creativity to work, your family can make imaginative costumes that will stand out in any trick-or-treat crowd.
To help you get started, we at the National Inventors Hall of Fame® put together a list of five fun ideas for DIY costumes inspired by STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), innovation and world-changing inventors. The best part? Each one can be made with the most versatile STEM tool ever: a cardboard box!
1. Extra Special X-ray
To make an X-ray costume, all you need is a box that’s big enough to fit over your child’s chest and a few art supplies. Cut holes in the box for their head and arms, then have your child make the box black by covering it in paint or duct tape. Use construction or printer paper to make an X-ray of a ribcage and glue it on the box. For an extra special touch, consider adding some glow-in-the-dark puffy paint. Before they put on their finished costume, take a moment to learn about Hall of Famer William D. Coolidge, inventor of the X-ray tube!
2. Awesome Railcar
All aboard the candy express! Become the conductor of your own train with basic household supplies. Start by finding a cardboard box that is large enough for your child to step through, then measure and hot glue ribbon or elastic to form two straps to hold up their railcar. Once the base is established, encourage your child to paint the outside in any style they’d like. Consider using round upcycles such as lids to represent wheels, colored plates for lights or cellophane for windows. While you and your child build your own incredible railcar, read about Hall of Famer Joshua Lionel Cowen and his invention, the toy train, that is loved by children and adults alike!
3. Visionary Doctor
If you’re looking for an inspiring costume, consider gearing up to portray a life-changing doctor. While the base of your child’s outfit can be simple — pants, shirt and a white coat — you can use cardboard to design and cut out detailed accessories! What would you need for a day treating patients? Consider a name badge, note-taking clipboard and other essential tools. Just like doctors, the goal of many inventors is to improve the lives of others. One incredible example is Hall of Famer Dr. Patricia Bath, an ophthalmologist and the first Black woman physician to receive a medical patent. Ophthalmologists specialize in eye and vision care, from prescribing glasses to performing surgery. With inspiration from this incredible role model, your child might want to use a cardboard box to create an eye chart as a key feature of their costume.
4. Show-Stopping Traffic Light
Here’s an unexpected costume that will make viewers stop in their tracks to check out your creativity. Help your child use paint or duct tape to cover their cardboard box in a vibrant yellow. Next, use some creative thinking to come up with ways to create your red, yellow and green lights. Consider painting a few paper plates, or maybe you could find some colorful cellophane in your gift wrapping supplies. If you have a flying disc, that could make a great light too! You might even add some reflective tape to help make the costume more visible after dark. And each time you cross a street, be sure to thank Hall of Famer Garrett Morgan for inventing the three-way traffic signal!
5. Leveled-Up Robot
A robot costume is a Halloween classic, but with some innovative thinking, your family can build your own unique take on the idea. Use multiple boxes of varying sizes to build an amazing costume and use paint, markers, duct tape or other materials to get the look just right. As your child assembles various elements for their robot, they should consider how each component might be useful. Their robot could have wheels to zip around at top speed or grabber hands to scoop up supplies! You also can take inspiration from Hall of Famers Mick Mountz, Peter Wurman and Raffaello D’Andrea, inventors of the Kiva system. This system uses thousands of autonomous mobile robots to lift and move racks of inventory shelves to workers as they select items. These robots greatly improved warehouse order fulfillment — what will your child’s robot do?
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