Sample Lesson

Our Community® Activity Two: Sweet “O” Donuts
Students, individually and in groups, use different production strategies to simulate producing donuts for Sweet “O” Donuts.

Key Learning Objectives

• understand production
• compare unit and assembly-line production methods

Before class, separate ingredient sheets, but do not separate donuts.

Go over definitions (production, product, unit production, assembly-line production, and defect). Explain the steps of creating a donut: mixing the ingredients (placing stickers on the back of the donut), shape the donut (remove donut from sheet), and flavor donut (color donut). After each donut has been created, an “inspector” (you or another student) will check to see that the donuts have been made correctly. Separate kids into 4 teams – ask the teacher to help you place students in appropriate groups. Two teams will use the unit production method to make donuts, while the other two teams will use the assembly-line method. Allow each of the teams to make as many donuts as possible in two minutes. The inspector then examines each donut to ensure quality, throwing out any that do not meet the criteria.

Discuss which method was most effective and why, how were the methods different, and what would you do differently if you had a second chance?