The 5th Grade Food Truck Tycoon module is built around three challenges -- Data, Systems, and Design. Students step into the role of a food truck entrepreneur, using data and systems thinking to make real-world business decisions as they plan, design, and launch their own food truck concept.
Students take on the role of food truck entrepreneurs. Working in teams, they collect and visualize class survey data, use those findings to decide what their food truck will sell, explore the basics of cost and profit, and build a brand identity with a food truck name and logo. The unit culminates in a class Food Truck Expo — a gallery walk where teams share their concepts and receive feedback from classmates.
Duration: ~ 1 Week (5~6 Class Periods)
Students investigate how systems work by learning to read, interpret, and create flowcharts — a fundamental tool in engineering, computer science, and business operations. Beginning with playful physical activities and building toward a culminating flowchart of their own food truck process, students develop the ability to break any complex process into logical, ordered steps and to represent decisions clearly.
Duration: ~ 1 Week (5 Class Periods)
Students take on the role of food truck designers. A new food truck owner, Riley Chen, sends the class a Request for Proposals (RFP) asking design teams to plan a brand-new food truck from the inside out. Using sample survey and cost data, teams choose a menu, research how real food trucks are laid out, sketch and evaluate floorplan ideas, model their floorplan in TinkerCAD, build a hands-on prototype, and present their design at a culminating Food Truck Expo.
Duration: ~ 2 Weeks (10 50-Minute Class Periods)
