Food Truck Challenge

How can we design a food truck around the food it needs to prepare and serve?

Students began the Food Truck Challenge by deciding what they wanted their food truck to serve. After exploring different options, they selected two signature foods, identified the ingredients in each, and considered how they could represent those ingredients using different materials. They then created miniature versions of their foods while working within specific size and material constraints.

Once their miniature foods were complete, students designed the food truck that would prepare and serve them. They considered the appliances, preparation and storage areas, serving window, and wheels their truck would need. With limited space, students had to decide what needed to fit, where it should go, and how the different parts would work together.

As students built, they measured, rearranged, resized, and adjusted their ideas when something didn't fit or work as planned. The challenge required them to use scale, spatial reasoning, and problem-solving to turn their ideas into a food truck that could actually function around the foods they chose.

My hope is that students left understanding that design is not just about how something looks, but how well it works. Every choice from what to include to where to put it has to respond to the space, the purpose, and the people using it.

If your child joined us, ask them: What were your two signature foods? What was the hardest thing to fit inside your food truck?

-Cristina