Well, my goodness, I am sure you have had pizza delivered to your house or sandwiches. So, I was thinking about another form of food delivery and wondered what people would like to eat- different from pizza and sandwiches….
How about a giant baked potato with all the fixings? I would order that!
Keep reading for the whole story!
So, I had some other ideas a while back that cooking in our lab might be fun. We tried pancakes and the kids loved it. I kept thinking about other ways to involve food and happened upon this idea quite by accident. I overheard someone complaining one day about only being able to get pizza delivered and wishing other restaurants did the same. (Yes, we know others do deliver, but not in our small town!)
So, I started thinking about what people would want to have delivered….. BAM! I had invented a STEM challenge- not to mention a delivery restaurant idea!
Design a Delivery Box
So, here’s the premise: The kids must invent a delivery restaurant that will bring baked potatoes to your door. How, you ask, do we get STEM involved in this?
Alright, let’s go step by step. First, the kids had to design a delivery box. It had to keep the potato hot and crush proof in case they dropped the delivery box. Check these photos:
Kids are using packing materials of their choice to line the boxes, but they must also consider what kind of materials will keep the food hot.
The Heat Test
And just how are we going to know the food will stay hot? We tested it!
After the boxes were stuffed we actually cooked some potatoes and placed them in the box. We used digital thermometers and tested the potatoes to see how much the temperature would drop in 20 minutes. The kids recorded data every minute. Can you see the temps in those pictures? One is 204 degrees and the other says 197!
Advertising
At the same time that this box designing was happening other team members were making advertisements for the potato company. The team chose a name, a logo, and a slogan and then made billboards for their companies.
Take note of the social media on these posters- websites and Instagram!
Some companies offered refunds and Buy One Get One Free! Notice that the company called Potato Tots is also advertising that they now have Sweet Tea! (Yes, we live in the south!)
Decorating the Delivery Boxes
Another thing each company had to do was decorate their delivery boxes. We looked at some pizza boxes to see what needed to be on our boxes and then created some masterpieces!
I don’t have any photos of the last thing each company did, but they also had to perform a television commercial- which meant writing a script and then acting out their ad.
We love this challenge! The kids are so excited by all of this as they work together in larger than normal groups to invent their own delivery company. Your natural little artists will take over the advertising and your technical kids will take on the data recording of the heat test. The best part is the commercial they invent.
Super fun challenge!
It has so many parts to it and takes about three weeks to complete! Of course, that includes baking some extra taters and eating them!
