This book follows the course of a year-long experiment in which the students were tasked with recreating a McDonald’s Happy Meal by making all the components - from food to packaging - by hand from local ingredients. It was meant to test a hypothesis that a very well-designed project in the arts can teach high school students academic skills and habits of mind while increasing motivation, emotional intelligence, creativity and holistic thinking skills. This book is an antidote to other books that purport to show teachers an exact formula to follow to get amazing results in the classroom. It will help to create a classroom that is more like play, with much more freedom and less scripting in order to engage students at a deeper level, and still get excellent results. By teaching a project-based history class like an arts studio and having the students redesign an archetypal American product in a very natural, improvisational way Werberger was able to have an energizing effect on their academic learning. This book will serve as a guide for teachers to learn more about the adaptive, creative, and epistemologically fascinating concept of arts-based research.

Table of Contents:
Acknolwedgments Introduction The Purpose of this Book What This Book Can Do for You How This Book Is Conceptualized How This Book Is Organized Chapter 1: Why the Arts Matter in School The Argument What exactly is PBL? The Aqua-Ponics Project A Modest Proposal The Advantages of an Education in the Arts The Arts in Decline Creating Art vs. Thinking Art Art Embraces Accident Critical Design What is the Value of Student Work? Use the Arts as a Fundamental Approach Chapter 2: How to Set the Stage How Does One Create the Environment for Learning? So You Want to Be an Artist Starting with What You Already Know Learning Abhors a Vacuum Demonstrating What You Know Gauging How Far You’ve Come Chapter 3: Building a Culture of Learning and Exploration Infinite Questions Learning to Take Risks Learning to See, Learning to Think, Learning to Ask Learning to Investigate An Interlude for Feedback Feedback Chapter 4: Deconstruction The Importance of the Entry Event The Event Itself Unmaking Unmaking and Remaking Chapter 5: Deconstruction of Self Deconstruction is a Path to Self-knowledge What is the Danger of Teleological Thinking? The Marriage of the Arts and Sciences What is Improvisational Thinking? What Does All This Mean for a High School Teacher? Chapter 6: Making The Satisfaction of Making Things by Hand Design Thinking The Importance of Having a Guide The Apprentice and the Mentor Mentorship for the Project-Based Classroom Back to the UnHappy Meal: Organization, Production, and Reconstruction Chapter 7: Bridging Body, Mind and Soul A Model for Arts-Based Research First Attempts with Art Making Art with Meaning Developing a Personal Vision for Success Chapter 8: The Exhibit Curating is Creating Art and Social Practice Putting It All Together The Importance of Showing Work Chapter 9: Measuring Success Assessing Progressive Education Assessing the UnHappy Meal as an Education Assessing the UnHappy Meal as Art How About the Audience? The Aftermath About the Author