'Challenge Lab' students learn entrepreneurship
Fernando Ramirez, 9, Kati Nelson, 9, and Clarissa Mata, 10, all fourth-graders at Highland Lakes Elementary, learn how to use the new circuit board in the Challenge Lab. They are now able to enjoy such science equipment in the learning lab, having bought it with $140 in earnings from selling their hand-made lip balm and bubblegum.
By Emily Hilley-Sierzchula
Teachers strive to find creative ways to impart wisdom to their students, and mastering Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) state-mandated requirements along the way is an added bonus.
Five 4th-graders in D’Ann Ross’ “Challenge Lab” at Highland Lakes Elementary recently learned about honeybees and how to manufacture bubblegum and lip balm with wax and honey. They also learned the basics of running a business, albeit on a small scale. In short, they learned how to be American entrepreneurs.
“They were pretty cute,” Ross said, proud of the way her students talked out problems and arrived at solutions, with her oversight. “They learned how to work together and to figure out what they have to do to make a profit.”
Considering an expense of 66 cents per container of lip balm, students figured their own price. After much discussion, they decided $1.50 would be fair, although they doubted at first that anyone would pay that much.
“They wanted to charge only 75 cents or a dollar, but I explained to them that we’d have to charge [$1.50] in order to make enough money to start another batch and keep the business going,” Ross said.
The five students rose before the roosters in order to make it to the school’s cafeteria before school to ply their wares. They netted $140 after paying Ross back for expenses.
With their profits, they bought more equipment for the Challenge Lab, including a robotics kit and the snap circuit kit with which they seemed preoccupied. The equipment help them and their fellow classmates learn even more TEKS concepts, such as how electricity works.
But, while learning, the students noted they enjoyed the process.
“Making it was the best part,” said Kati Nelson, 9, taking a moment away from figuring out the new circuit board. “I liked watching it go from a liquid to a solid-ish form.”
Nelson learned that “looks can be deceiving.”
“I didn’t think it would turn into a solid, but it did,” she said.
A beekeeper in Buchanan Dam, whose wife teaches at the high school, donated beeswax to the project.
“He just wanted some of the honey bubblegum we made,” Ross said, adding that the lip balm was more successful than the bubblegum experiment.
The students even designed and drew their own product labels.
The students who participated in the project were: Fernando Ramirez, 9, Clarissa Mata, 10, Kati Nelson, 9, Gretchen Hanneman, 9, and Charles Moody, 9.
