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Mackenzie Schock

This food truck was determined to be the best out of the Health classes.

From Oct. 23 to Nov. 8 Mrs. Samantha Fairbanks and Mrs. Mary Ellen Ferragonio’s CHS Health Education 11 classes worked on a food truck project to learn about nutrition. The project involved creating a hypothetical food truck design and planning out a menu with nutritional information being considered. Then, the students created a model of their food truck. The project was completed in groups so that students could collaborate and split up the workload.

The project offered a lot of opportunities for students to use their creativity. The guidelines for the project allowed for multiple different approaches to the activity. Students had to formulate two signature dishes, but there were no requirements about the type of dish.

Students also created a title, logo, and overall design for their food truck. Generally, students also used a theme for their truck. Examples of themes might be burgers, seafood, or pastries. This made students use their creativity to try to keep a consistent theme throughout the project which was reflected in the menu and the truck design itself.

There were multiple in-class workdays for students to work on their food trucks at their own pace. There were boxes to be cut up for truck construction in the front of the room and hot glue stations in the back of the classroom to glue together the cut-up cardboard pieces.

Once the trucks were finished, the groups informally presented their designs to the rest of the class. In the presentations, they included their food truck name, menu, and menu revisions. Afterward, the top six designs were selected between all of the class periods.

The top design was named the Mac Wagon. It was created by juniors Sarah Tomallo, Gabriella Steen, Elizabeth Cupp, and Alexis Nichols. The theme was macaroni and cheese, and the menu included different styles of mac and cheese dishes.

“The students enjoy getting to work with their peers to create something of their own and use their creativity with project-based learning,” Fairbanks said.

The food truck project is an activity that adds creativity to a very STEM-centered topic. Nutrition is an aspect of Health that is closely tied to science, particularly biochemistry. Students had to consider the nutrients in the foods they selected as they formed their menus.

Health as a subject is inherently scientific, but the food truck project is unique in its blending of science and visual art. Students had to create a 3D model of the food truck and consider what design they liked and wanted to use.

The models were constructed primarily out of cardboard boxes provided by Mrs. Fairbanks, although students could bring in materials from home if they wanted to. There was also construction paper, markers, pipe cleaners, and pompoms available for decoration purposes. The construction of the trucks made students think through the practical aspect of making the truck shape out of cardboard.

“It is a great way to include STEM in the classroom as well as a cross-curricular project,” Fairbanks said.

The project can inspire students to eat healthier and be more mindful of what sorts of foods they eat. Students had to create a reflection on the nutrition of their menu and how they could improve the health of their dishes after making the food truck. Possible revisions included changing regular bread or pasta to the whole wheat variety, baking instead of frying as a cooking option, or using healthier alternatives to butter.

”I actually had to think about how I could alter foods that I enjoy to make them healthier,” said Jessa Adkins, a Norwin junior in Health class. “Usually when you’re told to eat healthier it’s just ‘don’t eat that’.”

The reflection made students think critically about the types of nutrients in the foods they consume. Each signature dish required multiple revisions, so students had to consider a few different areas of the dishes that could be improved upon. The changes made to the dishes in the reflection were then included when the students presented their food trucks to the class.

“The project allowed me to realize that there can be healthier alternatives to food,” said Noelle Kravetz, a junior in Mrs. Ferragonio’s Health class. “Our teacher made us pick certain foods that we would have on our food truck menus and then made us find ways to make them healthier, so overall it made me more aware of what I’m eating and how there can be healthier options to that.”

Students generally enjoyed the project. The creative aspect of the project made it more engaging. Projects that include a creative element tends to interest students more than projects that have no creative aspect.

The project being mostly student-paced also gave students the flexibility to divide their time between the different parts of the project however worked best for them. The truck construction days were also a break from the normal pace of a school day.

“My favorite part of the food truck project was probably getting complete creative freedom over the entire project,” Kravetz said. “It was fun to be able to glue together a bunch of poof balls and pipe cleaners on the food truck, I felt like it was a nice break from all the homework and hard classes all day.”