I have decided that being a judge charged with evaluating which of 13 applicants competing for a coffee kiosk spot in the University library was probably not good for my blood pressure. It was not the weighty task of selecting a winner that was the problem. It was sampling so many different brews that had my heart working at a higher pace. I could feel the flush in my face. I know the approved “cupping” technique – slurp and spit, but this was the final project for an industrial design course and the multiple exhibits did not include spittoons. The student “competitors” were offering full cups. After a couple of these, I used my own cup and asked for a small sample.
This is what educators would call authentic assessment. You see if students can put the principles you hope they have learned into practice. If you learning design and evaluation processes the type of activity described here would be a reasonable capstone experience. I teach Intro Psych. I am not certain what a capstone experience for such a survey course might be. There might be smaller applied tasks, but the course does not build toward any cumulative goal that I can see evaluating with a single project.
I am somewhat of a coffee snob and I had fun challenging the students. I asked how they had selected the coffee the offered. Clearly, cost was often a factor and I suggested that I would likely not purchase Folgers or one of the inexpensive options from a big box stores. When I pushed a little more, it was obvious that many students did not actually drink coffee on a regular basis, but might use it to stay awake. Another tendency was to prefer heavily doctored drinks with flavors. One of the exhibits featured chocolate syrup because the pitchmen thought this would be popular with students (perhaps it would, I hope not). I also argued with the use of the large capacity drip coffee makers. I said that continuing to heat the coffee created a bitter taste over time. I did have an interesting discussion with this group regarding whether this was similar to the way Turkish coffee was made. I get the boiling part (my grandparents use to make coffee by boiling grounds in water with egg shells), but this approach (they were German, but I call this cowboy coffee) has a downside if you just let the stuff sit there on heat.
One of my big questions was whether the students thought their stand was a “grab and go” or was intended to be part of a social experience. What did students in the library want? Did they think about seating? Did they think students and adults (faculty members, staff) would prefer different kinds of coffee?
Some of these young entrepreneurs relied heavily on marketing to influence the judges. At least I received a free cup.
