Fantastic Food Trucks: Flexible No-Prep Project-Based Learning (PBL)

Welcome to the Fantastic Food Trucks PBL project!

This project will lead your students through an amazing and in-depth journey as they design all aspects of their very own food truck business.

With the provided grade-appropriate support, your students will design their menu, plan the layout of their truck, consider startup costs as well as how to market their business.

There is a wealth of information in this packet to guide you and your students through this incredible learning experience. Whether you are an experienced PBL teacher or trying project-based learning for the first time, this resource will provide everything you need to feel confident in supporting your learners throughout the project.

The Teacher Guide helps you plan your food truck project in a quick 30 minutes. You will select your driving question, identify your launch and culminating events, and decide which of the five available modules you will include in the project.

Following the teacher introduction, you will find the individual learning content modules, each with extensive teacher- and student-directed resources.

Available Learning Content Modules Include:

Launch Event:

• This module steps you through an effective and fun project launch.

Name, Menu & Branding

• What is the name of my business and what will I serve?

Interior Layout

• How can I design the inside of my truck so I can store food safely and prepare orders quickly?

Exterior Experience:  truck wrap, menus, supporting items, music, etc.

• What will the outside experience be for my customers?  (What will they see, hear, smell, do?)

Food Pricing and Costing

• What will my food cost and how should I price my menu?

Marketing

• How will my customers hear and find out about my business?

Culminating Event

• Steps you through an awesome project finale.

Resources within each module include:

Brainstorming worksheets covering key elements in the topic.

• Use these worksheets to stimulate student thinking and help learners consider the relevant issues for each of the topics.

Reflection worksheets

• Reflections are an important part of the PBL process as they allow students to deepen their learning via a thoughtful review of the content, methods and/or motivations for their learning.

The teacher-directed resources in each module/teacher guide include:

- Driving Questions

- Check-in Questions

- 3-5 ‘Deepen the Learning’ Options

• Each content module contains 3-5 easy options for helping your learners stretch their thinking and engage with the topic in more depth.

- Scheduling Guide

- Mini-lesson Resources

• Mini-lessons are 5-15 minutes of direct instruction covering information that you or your students have identified as necessary in order to move forward.

At the end of the packet you will find additional extension ideas as well as a complete list of the learning standards that this project encompasses. Specific standards for language arts, social studies, career preparation, technology and design, math and art are included.

The project is designed to be completely flexible in order to meet your scheduling requirements. Include just a few modules for a younger audience or quicker completion. Include all modules and the 'deepen the learning experience' options for an older audience or more in-depth experience.

If you are looking for an amazing project where all the hard work has been done for you, grab this easy-to-use packet and get ready for a fantastic learning journey.

What is PBL & Why Use It?

Project-based learning is not ‘doing projects.’

A project is a task that students complete after learning content in order to demonstrate understanding.

In project-based learning, students are given a real-world problem that engages and motivates them. Through the process of exploring and engaging with the issue, students discover the need to learn specific content and skills because they are required to solve the problem. 

Students become more engaged with learning because the motivation is driven from their need to know. Your role becomes more of a coach to guide your students to the best learning resources to meet their needs. (In many cases the best learning resources might be you - but now students are asking you for the information, instead of you telling your students that they need to know it.)

Because of the student-centred drive for information, PBL projects not only build independent learning skills, but also develop essential critical thinking, communication, and collaboration skills.

PBL projects have the potential to be the most memorable and most effective of your students’ school experiences. Grab this project and give it a try!

*** Now includes paperless, no-prep Interactive PDF. ***