Snack Stand - Paired Learning

The Snack Stand – Paired Learning Lab is an interactive, team-based classroom simulation designed to build both collaboration skills and core business knowledge.

🎯 What Students Learn

Students work in pairs (or small teams) to run a virtual snack stand during a three-hour simulated event. Throughout the lab, they:

• Learn and apply core business concepts: demand, revenue, profit, pricing, purchasing, and inventory management.
• Use interactive charts, sliders, and controls to build demand, revenue, and profit curves.
• Practice data-driven decision-making by adjusting prices in real time based on forecasted and actual weather conditions.
• Experience how strategy and adaptability affect business outcomes.
• Develop teamwork skills through paired decision-making and role assignments, where each team member manages specific products.

Overview

The Snack Stand Lab is a three-hour simulated business challenge where students run a snack stand for their school’s Family Field Day Event. They work in pairs or small teams, each member managing two of the four products (coffee, cold soda pop, sandwiches, and hot dogs). The lab blends business skill-building with collaborative learning, all supported by interactive worksheets, auto-grading, and live leaderboards.

📘 Flow of the Lab

1. Introduction & Storyline Setup, Team Formation

• Students are introduced to the event by the “District Event Coordinator” through a short video/story.
• They learn that their goal is to maximize profit and outperform other snack stands at the event.
• They are introduced to the four products they will sell.
• Students meet their teammate(s).
• Each team member takes responsibility for two products and is accountable for building models, making purchase and pricing decisions, and analyzing results.
• This ensures active participation and collaboration.

2. Building Core Skills

• Students analyze historical sales data to understand how weather affects attendance and demand.
• They use the interactive worksheet to create demand curves, then build revenue and profit curves.
• Teams will be presented with the weather forecast for each of the three hours of the event.
• Using sliders and graphs, they find the best price (at the peak of the profit curve) and identify expected demand at that price, for each hour.
• They learn how to use this information to create a purchase plan (buying enough to cover demand while minimizing leftovers).

3. Simulated Sales – 3 Rounds (Hours 1, 2, 3)

Each “hour” represents one round of sales at the event.

Hour 1:

• They then see the actual weather (different from the forecast) and adjust prices accordingly.
• Results (revenue & profit) are revealed at the end of the hour.

Hour 2:

• Teams reflect on Hour 1, then repeat the process with the forecast and actual weather for Hour 2.
• Price adjustments are made, results are revealed, and a leaderboard shows standings both for Hour 2 and cumulative performance so far.

Hour 3 (Final Hour):

• Teams see the forecast and then the actual weather for the final hour.
• They adjust prices, with the added option to repurchase inventory if they have run out.
• Results are revealed at the end of the hour, and teams’ total sales summaries (Hours 1–3 combined) are calculated automatically.

5. Leaderboards & Competition

• After each hour, leaderboards are automatically generated, teacher can present this to the classroom to show team performance.
• The final leaderboard combines:
• 80% Net Profit Score (total profit after all 3 hours)
• 20% Collaboration Score (measured automatically by the platform, with optional teacher adjustments)
• This ensures the challenge values both profitability and teamwork.

👩‍🏫 Teacher Experience

The lab is fully auto-graded and designed to minimize teacher workload:

• Team management and team-level progress tracking are built into the platform.
• The system automatically tracks student decisions, calculates profits, and updates leaderboards.
• Teachers can focus on guiding discussions, highlighting takeaways, and encouraging reflection.

🌟 Why Teachers Love It

• Engaging, hands-on simulation that keeps students motivated.
• Balances business skill development with collaborative learning.
• Promotes discussion, reflection, and real-world connections.
• Provides clear, automated results while still allowing teachers to adjust collaboration scores or guide conversations.

In short:

The Snack Stand – Paired Learning Lab is a powerful, interactive classroom experience where students compete, collaborate, and learn business fundamentals — all while the platform manages the heavy lifting of tracking, grading, and team progress.