SMAK-G Chocolate Company - Grade 8 Math, Science, Language Arts & French Project

Purpose of Project:

The SMAK-G Chocolate Company wants a brand-new chocolate bar to add to their collection. Your team has been tasked with developing a new recipe, packaging and a full ad campaign complete with print ad, website and either a television or radio commercial spot. You will report to various managing directors to ensure the quality of your final product meets the expectations of the SMAK-G company. The final pitch for your product will take place as part of a Launch Party where all of the new products will be unveiled and judged by experts in a variety of related fields.

Project Process:

I am sure you can imagine that a project of this magnitude, with this many subject disciplines intertwined, requires a LOT of planning. The first year we took this on we learned a great deal about the coordination and intricate timing necessary between subject areas in order to set students up for success. In science, we start by having students learn about the components of chocolate and where it comes from. I link this to the Mix and Flow of Matter unit, talking about particles and how they interact. We spend some time tasting chocolate so students can decide which one will make the best base for their chocolates. This is a great experience as they look at something they eat regularly in a completely different way! It can also be useful to have students create a Google Form survey so they can do some focus group testing to see what people might prefer. I did this the first year, but we move away from it the last couple of years simply due to time constraints.

Once we learn how chocolate is made from the bean, it's time to learn about how chocolate is "made" in shops. This was probably the part I learned the most about. Students had to learn about the importance of tempering chocolate properly before they added flavours etc. Tempering is key for ensuring the cocoa butter crystals are properly aligned to make that shiny chocolate with a nice "snap" when you bite into it. Students get the chance to try tempering chocolate and have to complete this stage before they can move on to flavour testing. Once they have decided on their flavour, students make a small batch of sample chocolates and take photos - lots of photos - which they will later use in their print ads, websites and commercials as part of their marketing campaigns.

Remember how I said this project is a part of Mix and Flow of Matter? Well here come lessons and labs on Viscosity and Density but with chocolate! After talking about the theory behind viscosity, students perform a qualitative viscosity lab with the different types of chocolate we have available. We analyse the results and discuss them in relation to what the different chocolates are made of - which have more or less cocoa butter, for example. We also measure the mass and volume of each chocolate so we can calculate density. This value is then used to calculate the mass of chocolate they need to make their bars.

Sometimes there is a misconception about project work where folks think students are just going full-tilt at something with little to no structure or rigor. That has not been my experience now that I have a good understanding of true PBL. As you can see, our students have many requirements for this project. In order to keep them all organized, we give each group a portfolio that is kept at school (this avoids group members saying "so and so has our work so we can't do anything today) and we provide them with a brightly coloured checklist that is a complete snapshot of all components of the project. We have found these tools to be incredibly helpful.

In the final week leading up to the project showcase, students have to make their final samples in a larger scale. They need to calculate how much chocolate in a package and then use this to determine how much chocolate to use to make enough samples for our launch party. We ask students to keep 2-3 samples intact for the showcase but then the rest are cut into smaller portions for tasting - we learned this after the first year when our judges turned a bit green from tasting so many full-sized samples! The decide how they will present and plate their samples to make them most appealing.

We are fortunate at our school to have an on-site graphic artist who can assist our students with the work they do for their ad campaigns and packaging. They work with In Design, Adobe Photoshop and other design software to create products that are truly professional looking!

Finally the big day arrives! We showcase this project as a SMAK-G Product Launch Party where students are challenged to make their product stand out among the crowd. We stress the importance of branding throughout the entire presentation. Students are given one round table with a black table cloth and it is up to them to embrace their brand and their theme to make the best presentation they can. We are fortunate to have the support of community mentors who come in to judge the students' work and we even have a local chocolatier who chooses one product which she perfects and markets with the students' logos and designs as one of her feature bars! I LOVE this day... usually I am a weepy mess from start to finish because I am so overwhelmingly proud of the kids and all of the hard work they have done.

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