At the Indian Hill School District, Aramark Food Services does more than serve students lunch. The global service company, which operates in 19 countries, has found a home in the fourth grade classrooms at Indian Hill Elementary School to discuss business through Problem Based Learning (PBL) sessions.
“PBL makes learning relevant and meaningful for students,” said Betsy Henning, Indian Hill Elementary School instructional coach. Henning helped to facilitate the creation and implementation of the unit by teachers Brittany Cannon and Kelly Vaughan with Aramark Director Steve Schlimm.
“The students are so invested and passionate about their learning for this unit,” said Henning. “Our teachers embraced PBL, the Design Thinking Process, and new learning for themselves as well. Connecting with Aramark was authentic and gave students purpose. Steve Schlimm has been a wonderful partner in this process.”
For the PBL unit, students were presented with the question: What lunch could you create for the fourth grade that fits the nutritional guidelines and would be a meal all the students would love to buy? They are researching budgetary and nutritional information, using math skills to calculate the nutritional value of a meal. In language arts, students interviewed their families about past and present lunch options, and read non-fiction text about lunch options throughout the world.
“Once students came to the realization that math has a purpose and impacts their daily lives, they became more focused, engaged, and excited,” said Brittany Cannon, Indian Hill Elementary School teacher. “The project involves something that is personal, local, and immediate to them, and allowed us to connect with community partners.”
“We broadened their perspectives by offering them the choice of researching school lunches around the world,” added teacher Kelly Vaughan. “From France, Kenya, and Russia, to Afghanistan, Brazil, and Japan, readers were actively engaged in learning about similarities and differences in the way students are fed in other countries.”
Students collaborated to develop questions to interview Steve Schlimm virtually, and they are collaborating to create presentations for their classmates to vote on the meal design that best follows the nutritional guidelines for school lunches and is also the most appealing. Aramark has agreed to create and serve the winning meal to the fourth-grade students for lunch.
“This is a win-win,” said Indian Hill Elementary School Principal Whitney Buell. “It gives our students a chance to engage in real-world learning, and it provides our business partner an opportunity to really get to know our amazing students and help influence their understanding about math and language arts. We are grateful to Aramark for working with us to create this unique educational experience.”
The project began at the end of November and will be completed within December.
Photo caption: Aramark Director Steve Schlimm answers student questions in Brittany Cannon’s fourth-grade math class about the planning and guidelines that go into the creation of a school lunch at Indian Hill Elementary School.