27 Oct 2017
The following article appeared in the Local News Plus on September 11th 2017:
Quite literally giving family and friends a taste of what they have been doing in the classroom, Year 7 students from Granville Boys High School showcased their ideas for restaurants at a presentation evening last week.
The 28 teams of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) students each created models of restaurant layouts, as well as developing themes, menus and cooking up a signature dish as part of a project-based learning (PBL) curriculum.
Teacher Dilek Sivrioglu says PBL is a teaching method where students gain knowledge and skills by investigating an "authentic, engaging and complex question, problem, or challenge".
In this case, the question was "how can we make our restaurant rule?" and the public presentation to invited guests, including well-known chefs and restauranteurs such as Somer Sivrioglu, was the final stage of the project.
Head teacher technology and coordinator for STEM, Grant Odei, says PBL tries to build skills of communication and collaboration. "Everything we do is in groups because that's the way the real world works," he said.
Students Phillip Xiao, 12, and Moiz Khan, 13, said they enjoyed planning an outback themed restaurant, creating a signature dish of meatballs with mushrooms as well as some sauces and dips. Visiting working restaurants gave them a lot of ideas but Moiz says their group went with an Aussie theme because their group was so multicultural. "We have different cultures and backgrounds (in the group) and thought that Australian was best," he said. "I liked how we got to make it from scratch and learnt about the processes for how restaurants operate." Phillip added that outback theme was simple "with no fancy stuff". "I think the food for outback is mostly very delicious and the setting was comfortable," he said.
