Minding their own businesses

Southeast Missourian

Fifth-grade students at North Elementary School in Fruitland learned about marketing, customer feedback, advertising and business models as part of a project that lets them develop their own fast-food restaurant.

The restaurants, ranging from Touchdown Barbecue to Donut Diner, were created as part of a social studies unit called "Takin' Care of Business," taught by high school students in the Jackson school district.

The unit is part of an American Enterprise Project created by members of the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), an organization for high school students that teaches about the business world. For three consecutive weeks, high school students have been visiting the elementary school to lead lessons on supply and demand, advertising, accounting, taxes and customer service.

Each hour-long session involves a different topic and is lead by a different group of high school students. In all, 40 high school students are taking part in the project.

The American Enterprise Project is the third of its kind for the Jackson FBLA. Last year's project earned the club a first-place award at the state level and third place in the national competition.

Because the project had such success in previous years, the students didn't want to change much for this year's lessons, though they had to customize some lesson plans.

"We had to come up with everything ourselves," said Mark McMullin, one of two students spearheading the project. "It takes a lot of energy to teach these kids."

Some of the early lessons were too simple for the fifth graders and had to be rewritten, McMullin said. He and Brandon Andrews, who also heads the project, attend every class session.

In a lesson about customer service and feedback, the students talked about how to connect with their customers. Some suggested putting out survey forms on their tables, others wanted to create a Web site form so customers could send e-mail.

The group that operated Touchdown Barbecue talked about offering refunds or a free order of babyback ribs to customers who responded to the survey. "But we need to keep our money," said Cody McCuan. Classmate Colby Zoellner wasn't even sure what a refund actually meant.

Working in groups of five or six, the students filmed 2-minute commercials advertising their business. The commercials had to include the name of the business, its hours of operation, location and slogan.

Students operating the Donut Diner even found a celebrity to spotlight in their commercial: Santa Claus. The group's slogan is "In the future, Santa Claus won't eat cookies but donuts from Donut Diner," so the students thought it necessary to include an appearance from the jolly old elf.

Christopher Donner wears a red construction cap and a white paper beard when he appears as Santa in the commercial.

The group chose a donut shop as its business and then set out to draft a plan for their operation. They even included a model of the shop's interior, showing a giant donut at the building's front.

"We talked about Krispy Kreme because they are so good," said Chelsea Todt.

"We think there needs to be one in Jackson," said Rachael Meyr. Until then, the students will have to settle for the Donut Diner.

One restaurant from each of the two fifth-grade classes at North Elementary will be chosen as the winner in the project. Parents will help choose the final winners when they come for a Parent's Night Wednesday to see the commercials and the restaurants created by the classes.

ljohnston@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126