Food Trucks Across America: An Interdisciplinary Fourth-grade Experience!

In previous years, students completed the Wax Museum highlighting people that come from the different regions of the United States. This year, we've changed it up and are doing Food Trucks Across the United States.

Students will be creating their own food truck that encompasses the history, culture, economy, and agriculture of a state that they've been assigned. They also need to choose a location within their state to serve as their "home-base" for their food truck. This project incorporates: real-world experiential learning, STEM, independent research, 21st-century learning integrations, cooperative/collaborative learning, and interdisciplinary connections. Students will: 

• Create their menu, complete with a signature dish that showcases the food from their state
• Create a jingle for their food truck with Google Chrome Music Lab under the direction of Mr. Wallace
• Code their own commercial through Scratch and learn how to use Google Spreadsheets with Mrs. Polefka
• Complete a research paper on the business of running a food truck and their state
• Present their 3D food truck models, commercials, jingles, speeches, research, and reflections

There are various field experiences tied to this project. Students already visited Lu Taquería on Main Street to listen to the owners talk to them about their experiences owning a food truck and moving to a brick and mortar location.

On February 15, students will be traveling to Wegmans to do a comparison exercise using their signature dish ingredients. They will use this data to work on Google Spreadsheets after their trip. Lastly on April 9, they will travel to the Hershey Story Museum where they will become immersed in the sweet business of selling chocolate in this hands-on, team-building class. First, teams will use real ingredients to create a new chocolate product. Next, they’ll design the packaging and then strategize a marketing campaign to sell their product. Instruction for the program will take place at the Hershey Chocolate Lab. 

Understanding that a key component for experiential learning is student reflection, we will be asking students to create a written and video blog of their experience throughout this project.

Save the date: Students will present their projects on April 26, 2024!