Case: School-Cafeteria Make-Over Real-World Style

Students in a fourth-grade classroom engage in a STEAMSTEAM education problem scenario about how to redesign the school cafeteria in this case. Ms. Weatherbee, the teacher for this group of fourth-graders, feels that the project will provide opportunities for connecting ideas through multiple disciplines. These ideas include engineeringEngineering design in terms of the new layout for the cafeteria, noise reduction, food science with healthy choices, and math using budgeting and percentage. Ms. Weatherbee lets her students select a topic to investigate (food, spaceSpace, use, logistics, etc.) as well as a way to disseminate their results. At the end of the project, the students present their ideas to the school board, principal, and the school administrationAdministration, only to realize that their presentation was perceived as more for “show” instead of enacting real change. Ms. Weatherbee struggles with supporting the students during this time; however, the students were persistent and came up with new ideas that she had not thought of for making the change themselves.