The Lunchroom Project Case Study

Conducting a strong and accurate survey, though it may sound simple at first, gets complicated fairly quickly. There are many factors that begin to surface that require thinking on a much deeper level. When presented with a problem involving student lunch options, the children from Patricia Manchester’s third grade class decided to conduct a survey which they named The Lunchroom Project. As we filter through their ideas and methods, certain steps are apparent in their process.

The Overall Problem

The students had a long list of complaints about the schools lunch offerings. They decided they would like to write letters to the director of food services, however they needed data to support their claims. The teacher suggested developing and conducting a survey that would provide them with accurate information. When they started breaking down the logistics of the study, the students quickly figured out that is, of course, much easier said than done. Their lunchroom not only offers the main dish, but has a variety of side items, soups, salads, and more, that give the students a variety of options for lunch. With so many available options, they had to put an extreme amount of care into the development of their study to ensure results could be accurately measured.

Posing the Question
Since evaluating the entire body of their K-12 School was too broad for their purposes, they decided to narrow the playing field to just the third graders.

They decided to pose the question “What do third graders eat for lunch?” With teacher guidance, the students developed a list of questions that they wanted their survey to answer. To create an accurate study, they began eliminating and narrowing down their questions. They decided that if they already knew the answers, then they needed to ask different questions. They eventually narrowed it down to 4 questions that they wanted their study to

answer.
Collect the Data
After making predictions of what foods they thought students would choose, they made up a month’s calendar and assigned one student to each third grade classroom per day. At lunchtime students would go to each classroom making tally marks to record the frequency that each food was chosen. They decided this method allowed them to collect data in a reasonable amount of time (quickly during lunchtime), and allowed enough time span (every school day for a month) to get an accurate representation of “the food service repertoire” (45). They had to decide on an appropriate time frame that allowed for a sufficient collection of data, without going so long that students lost interest, or might chance being unable to properly track every day, ergo compromising the value of the information.
Analyze the Data
Analysis of data is a quantitative summary of the collected data. In this case the students chose to summarize their results in different ways. They highlighted the most popular main dishes by writing a group report. They decided a pictograph was most appropriate for reporting the most popular side dishes. They also needed a way to represent the selections that were chosen instead of a main dish, which they opted to display using a bar graph.
Interpret the Results
Interpreting the results, though somewhat similar to analysis, is more of a qualitative approach to find meaning in the data. The students had to make sure that they were reporting appropriately according to the data they collected, and reporting to “propose and justify conclusions and predictions based on data” (45). The students discovered the need to critically examine their language and word choices as to ensure authentic and true reporting of the data they collected. Creating accurate graph titles proved to be more challenging than expected and required a much deeper level of logical thinking than they had originally anticipated. Communication of Results
After interpreting their results, the students learned that most third graders selected soup only when the offering was chicken noodle. They chose to make a poster and display this result in an artistic way. Also, each child wrote a letter to the director of food services revealing their appreciation for what he does. They expressed that “even though fries were the most popular side dish, offering them every day would not be a nutritious choice”(46). The children also compiled a list of questions titled What We Still Wonder. They posted the list in their school, along with their findings, and a description of their methods hoping to prompt further studies by other classes.
Conclusion
Not only did this study help the children learn more about researching and surveying, but it gave them practice formulating appropriate questions for what they were trying to find out, creating charts, graphs, letters, and reports, gave them experience expressing their ideas, building skills of logic and organization, and building general writing and communication skills. The teacher reported that “the experience of working together is not separable from the content of what they are learning” (47). A large project of this nature involves many skill building exercises that focus towards ideas of critical thinking and deeper learning.