Beverage engineers: Creative international STEM project

Students have an opportunity to participate in a creative engineering / international STEM project, prepared and facilitated by the authors. They are challenged to create their best tasting, nutritious fruit juice. In addition, they are asked to provide a catchy name and to design a special container for their drink. This project is an international collaboration between professors in the United States and Japan. It is a preliminary investigation and relates to various topics in education including chemistry and chemical engineering (the fruits, etc. contain various chemicals with different properties), materials science (students select a specific material such as glass or plastic for storing their drinks), and creative design (students design attractive containers for their beverages). In addition, this activity is an exercise in entrepreneurship, because it gives the participants a chance to invent and name a potential, new product for consumers.