Chemical and Physical Change Café Comes to Life
Students in the grades 4-5 classroom at Vesper Community Academy (VCA) were given the following
project-based learning task:
Work as a team to create and plan a menu for a “Chemical & Physical Change Cafè.” The menu
should teach grades K-1 students about matter and what makes a healthy meal.
This was the beginning of a thirteen day authentic learning experience that the students will never
forget! The students created questions they needed to research in order to accomplish the task. About
half of the questions were about matter, while the rest were about healthy eating. Students spent time
researching and taking notes on these questions, becoming engaged in informational reading, and also
participated in several science inquiries about matter. They learned about types of matter, as well as
physical and chemical change. In addition, the students researched healthy eating and food groups.
Writing was incorporated into the project when students were asked to write an informative piece on
what they learned about matter. The students also worked in teams of four to create a menu for the
Chemical and Physical Change Cafe. The menus shared three to four food choices with information
about food groups, healthy eating, and changes in matter as the foods were made for the cafe patrons.
As a product to share their knowledge and understanding, the students used the menus to run a cafe
at VCA for one hour. They became chefs, waiters, and hostesses for the afternoon!
This project also focused on the success skills of collaboration, communication, and critical thinking.
Students were asked to reflect and critique their learning experience. This allowed them to think
about how they learned and create goals for themselves in their next project-based learning
experience.
VCA uses the Buck Institute for Education project design elements to plan and proceed through
project-based learning. You can learn more by clicking here: