Experimenting with Peanut Butter & Jelly to Learn Economics

Students taking the course “Economics in Thought and Action” recently participated in an exciting peanut butter and jelly experiment to learn principles of classic economics. Teacher Mr. Greg Perles said, “One of the key principles of Scottish economist Adam Smith's worldview is the transformative impact of a simple innovation: the division of labor.”

Pictured are 11th and 12th graders at North Shore High School whose class project recently helped them learn classical economics and help the needy at the same time.

To illustrate this point, the students in the class conceived an experiment involving the mass production of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Before beginning, Mr. Perles said, “We decided not to proceed with the experiment unless we could find something meaningful to do with all of the sandwiches. My students subsequently made inquiries about soup kitchens and ultimately found one in Glen Cove that would accept a donation of many, many sandwiches.”

The students composed a shopping list of supplies for the Peanut Butter & Jelly Experiment and each donated (along with Mr. Perles) $5 to purchase the necessary items. Mr. Perles explained, “The day before the experiment, we established a baseline for our data by having each individual student make sandwiches alone. This gave us a sense of how fast a worker can produce a product working individually. We used this data the next day to compare individual production to mass production.” 

For the experiment, the students divided into teams, planned their production sequence, and agreed to be as competitive as possible. On the big day, each team made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as fast as possible and then performed the necessary calculations to figure out their respective rates of production. The sandwich making was orderly, intense, competitive and productive. After class, approximately 120 sandwiches were taken to the Glen Cove INN to be distributed to those less fortunate.

Mr. Perles concluded, “This experiment was a springboard for examining Adam Smith's theories of market capitalism. It gave us a tangible example of the division of labor— what Adam Smith called “the greatest improvement” in the history of labor.  It produced some frustrations, as well.  We will use these frustrations to help frame Marx's critique of capitalism.  And, of course, it gave students a personal experience in being charitable.”