by Miriam Lili

The Benevolence Bazaar is an annual event at Olive Tree College (pseudonym), a small Australian Christian school. This event is the culmination of teacher-facilitated, student-led learning, over an extended semester of thirteen weeks, where groups of middle-school students (years seven to ten) implement the market stalls that they have planned as project-based learning (PBL) in STEAM classes (STEAM is an acronym for an integration of STEM—science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—and the arts). The purpose of the event is to raise funds as a gift for the college’s sister school in a developing country. This is an important part of an ongoing connection with this overseas school. Later, in senior school, Olive Tree College students have the opportunity for a friendship visit to the overseas school with their teachers. 

In my first year as a teacher at Olive Tree College, I was assigned the eighth-grade STEAM class. While familiar with and greatly interested in STEAM education, I was much less familiar with the nuances of Olive Tree College’s approach to the fundraising project than were my students. As I followed the lesson plans, I found that I needed to adjust my expectations and work with colleagues to achieve the objectives of the unit with my students. In the process of teaching the unit, I had reason to send several emails to my students’ parents and to my colleagues. In this article, I reflect on these emails, the basis in literature of the Benevolence Bazaar project, and how implementation of the unit contributed to students’ practical understanding of money through teacher collaboration and a use of spreadsheet technology.

The Benevolence Bazaar Project

While shrewdness is not usually listed in a Christian school’s set of values, it is something that Jesus commended. In the parable of the shrewd manager (Luke 18), a dishonest man who knew well his own limitations had keen insights into the power and usefulness of money and financial dealings for his own benefit. He used his fading access to the resources of a business to gain friends who would support him, out of gratefulness or obligation, when his employment ended. Shrewdness is generally considered to be a positive trait when associated with business and the management of money. It is associated with resourcefulness, good judgement, astute decision making, and a sharp mind. Wydick suggests that the ideal of showing compassion and generous care to people from other countries and cultures, often drawn from the story of the good Samaritan, should be resourced with shrewdness, combining the two concepts in a vision of Christians and Christian organizations as “shrewd Samaritans.” Wydick explains, “The shrewd manager, despite possible character flaws, understands at least one important thing: money is temporal, but people and relationships are not . . . and if he can pull that off, how much more wisely, beautifully, and creatively could [money be used] to love and care” for others (12). The intended outcome of the Benevolence Bazaar was indeed for students to take the lead in designing wise, beautiful, and creative stalls to raise funds as an act of compassion for a school connected through friendship with Olive Tree College.

“The shrewd manager, despite possible character flaws, understands at least one important thing: money is temporal, but people and relationships are not…”

The Benevolence Bazaar project is included as part of Olive Tree College’s discretionary time, alongside the required key learning areas from the Australian Curriculum. It focuses on teaching, learning, and assessment of the general capabilities from the Australian Curriculum, which include literacy, digital literacy, numeracy, personal and social capability, ethical understanding, intercultural understanding, and critical and creative thinking. According to version nine of the Australian Curriculum, “Students become numerate as they develop the knowledge and skills to use mathematics confidently across learning areas at school and in their lives more broadly” (para. 2). Numeracy is further organized into elements and sub-elements. The Benevolence Bazaar project contributes to the development of “understanding money,” the eighth sub-element of the “Number Sense and Algebra” element. This sub-element includes “financial numeracy skills that support students to become financially literate members of society, [and] financial decisions [that] require the capacity to carry out calculations with money and apply their knowledge to purchasing, budgeting and justification for the use of money” (para. 23). The students at Olive Tree College learn to understand money for shrewd compassion in an integrated approach through STEAM PBL. 

Learning through STEAM and PBL

In STEAM, disciplines from the literary and creative arts are expected to engage interest, increase motivation, and encourage the development of the twenty-first-century and STEM skills that are considered necessary for students to achieve success in their future employment (Guyotte et al.; Quigley and Herro). This includes critical thinking, communication, collaboration, creativity (Fullan et al.), “multiple sensory and motor domains” (Fugate et al. 283), and competency with STEM subject content. Further, Perales and Aróstegui argue that the arts in STEAM education can have a positive impact on “humanity, the individual, and society . . . provid[ing] a well-rounded education that responds to the needs of our world at all levels, including the economic one” (65). STEAM approaches to teaching and learning are usually positioned as student-centered, inquiry-based learning. Teachers provide resources and guidance as necessary as their students learn to identify and construct task-specific knowledge and understanding. The integrative design of STEAM lessons and units varies in practice and largely depends on how a project or problem can unite disciplines in achieving a common task. In most approaches, the disciplines contribute knowledge, skills, or expertise. For example, science brings laws and methods, technology brings materials and machines, engineering brings design principles, the arts bring ways of communicating and illustrating, and mathematics brings ways of measuring, representing, and calculating. In doing so, interdisciplinary connections are made, disciplinary boundaries are blurred, and multidisciplinary projects are collaboratively completed.

With STEAM, students are encouraged to recognize how subjects connect and how learning applies to the realities of life.

With STEAM, students are encouraged to recognize how subjects connect and how learning applies to the realities of life. This encourages the development of a holistic view of their learning, the world, and society. The preferred approach at Olive Tree College aligns with New Tech Network’s approach to PBL: the LAUNCH cycle. Spencer explains that “in the first phase [of the LAUNCH cycle], students [are to] look, listen, and learn. The goal here is awareness. It might be a sense of wonder at a process, an awareness of a problem, or a sense of empathy toward an audience” (para. 6, emphasis mine here and below). The Launch Cycle then expects that students will be motivated and able to “ask tons of questions about the project” (para. 7), and gain greater understanding as they conduct research through accessing a range of print, media, and practical resources. They then navigate through a sea of ideas to conceptualize a way forward, create a trial version as a prototype, and highlight and fix any limitations or shortcomings. The LAUNCH cycle is iterative, and students may move through the six stages in any direction until they are satisfied with the success of their project. Finally, the project is presented “to an authentic audience. They share their work with the world!” (para. 12). Olive Tree College’s Benevolence Bazaar projects are shared with the college community, in real interactions and transactions, and the proceeds are given to a school in a needy part of the world.

Beginning Facilitation of the Benevolence Bazaar Projects

I found that the majority of the students in my class did not want to start by looking and listening.

I learned about the Benevolence Bazaar projects while preparing to teach the STEAM lessons in the unit. The Benevolence Bazaar pre-dated my employment at the school, and so by the end of the first lesson, I had many questions. There were sufficient existing resources to assist me with lesson preparation, including videos about the school in the developing country and fundraising ideas. However, I was trying to imagine how the Benevolence Bazaar would unfold in practice. Lessons to implement the LAUNCH cycle were provided for me, arranged week by week in a Google Classroom. In line with what I understood about the project, I started by showing the videos and facilitating a “non-group forming” structured reflection and brainstorming process. However, I found that the majority of the students in my class did not want to start by looking and listening. This was especially true for those who already knew about the ideas presented in the videos and who had experienced previous Benevolence Bazaar events. The students who had attended Olive Tree College in their primary years were very familiar with the school, the cause, and the projects. They had prayed for the students who attended their sister school and had attended many previous Benevolence Bazaar events. It may have been this familiarity that led them to be more interested in working with what they knew rather than researching new ways of raising funds. I had to admit that it made sense that they were not interested in questioning or exploring new possibilities because they already knew ways that had worked.

As such, many of my students were pushing forward. They wanted to form groups and start planning their stalls. They were very keen to produce and sell the products and experiences that they liked, enjoyed, and remembered. They were keen to work with the familiar in order to get to the fun part of fundraising: the making and selling. At the same time, I noticed that some of my students were holding back. The Benevolence Bazaar project, along with all other STEAM projects at Olive Tree College, is designed for group work, and this was something with which they were clearly not comfortable. Some students were withdrawing, and others were showing their displeasure vocally. There were also some students who were very comfortable in their groups, but were either distracting the others or quite happy to sit back while the others did the work. 

In order to meet unit requirements, I needed my students to consider how they could use LAUNCH cycle processes to consider the cause more deeply, and to make and document wise decisions about their fundraising ideas. Being sure that my students would have already been involved in conversations about materials and equipment with their parents, I wrote an email to their parents to seek their partnership and clarify the intention of the unit (see figure 1).

Figure 1

Email to parents of Year 8 at Olive Tree College

There were no replies from parents, but this was not surprising, as the email was informative in nature. I continued with the next lesson, still somewhat reluctant to let students form groups until more ideas had been generated and discussed. I was hoping that discussions about possible projects would create a whole class vision from which all students could become inspired to be involved, make informed selections, and work collaboratively in fundraising-focused groups. 

In the end, I had to recognize that the majority of my students were determined to begin at the fifth stage of the LAUNCH cycle: the creation of a prototype, which involved the fun of designing posters, making lists of ingredients, and arranging supplies and costs. There were offers to bring items from home with an assurance that they could start production immediately. The students’ generosity and enthusiasm were heart warming, encouraging, and spontaneous. I did wonder, though, whether the option to donate was simply seen to be less work than having to follow the full process of applying for start-up funds from the school to cover the costs of supplies. I also had several weeks of learning for the general capabilities in the unit plan that I was now not sure how to cover if my students already had their plans in place and were not interested in considering other options. I conceded and removed the restriction of group formation and, sure enough, there were students on the fringes of the groups. I was away from school for the next lesson, when students were to prepare their business proposals in their groups, so I emailed the teacher who would cover my class (see figure 2).

Figure 2

Email to substitute teacher covering my Year 8 STEAM class

Adding value when raising funds reflects the mindset of the good Samaritan. In arranging for the inn keeper to contribute shelter and assume direct responsibility to care for the injured man, the Samaritan added value by contributing his own monetary gifts of compassion. For the Benevolence Bazaar stalls, while profit was the main goal, the funds were being raised in a community for a community. I encouraged my students to keep the purpose of their stall in the center of their thinking and to design non-monetary ways to add value in order to honor their customers and contribute to a sense of community partnership in Christian service. 

Addressing Misconceptions About Money and Fundraising, with Teacher Collaboration

Over the next month, the groups of students in my STEAM class worked with varying levels of efficiency. Most made progress on their business proposals, but in discussing my experiences with the other STEAM teachers, it became clear that there had been some confusion, and not just with my class. We arranged to meet and discuss the best way forward. I had noticed that my eighth-grade students were writing overly complex business proposals. They were preparing to sell multiple items, but there was insufficient detail in their lists of required materials to realistically manage them on the day. The posters that the students were preparing were bright and attractive—with their products, the costs, and their group names—but did not include anything about the purpose of the fundraising event. Finally, all STEAM teachers were concerned that the students’ plans did not demonstrate an adequate understanding of the importance of achieving a profit. They were clearly planning enjoyable stalls, but there was room for greater shrewdness so that the goal of raising funds would be achieved. 

I noticed that there was a risk of waste or loss of profit for some of my students’ market stalls. They were offering low prices and overly generous prizes, despite using supplies with a high cost. For other groups, their prices were too high, making their wares inaccessible and unlikely to be sold. Some students were asking what would happen with leftover items if they used school funds to purchase them, and whether they would be able to keep them if they were not sold. In my mind, my students needed to aim to attract customers and sell all of their products. They needed to maximize their profits with the least possible expenditure while still offering a quality product with value-added service. They also needed to consider the possibility of competition for customers and the reality of what could be achieved in the time limit within which sales could be made. There would be sixteen stalls running for approximately an hour for the Benevolence Bazaar. In the meeting, some guidelines were discussed and determined. Recognizing the importance of being consistent with the details of these decisions, I took notes and emailed them to the other teachers (see figure 3).

Figure 3

Email to the other STEAM teachers after our meeting

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Works Cited

Australian Curriculum. “Understand This General Capability: Numeracy.” Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2025, www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/curriculum-information/understand-this-general-capability/numeracy.

Fugate, Jennifer, Sheila Macrine, and Christina Cipriano. “The Role of Embodied Cognition for Transforming Learning.” International Journal of School & Educational Psychology, vol. 7, no. 4, 2019, pp. 274–88, https://doi.org/10.1080/21683603.2018.1443856. 

Fullan, Michael, Peter Hill, and Santiago Rincón-Gallardo. “Deep Learning: Shaking the Foundations.” New Pedagogies for Deep Learning: A Global Partnership, 2017, www.researchgate.net/profile/Santiago_Rincon-Gallardo/publication/316044370_Deep_Learning_Shaking_the_Foundations/links/58ee3abf458515c4aa52b0e8/Deep-Learning-Shaking-the-Foundations.pdf?origin=publication_detail.

Guyotte, Kelly, et al.. “STEAM as Social Practice: Cultivating Creativity in Transdisciplinary Spaces.” Art Education, vol. 67, no. 6, 2014, pp. 12–19, https://doi.org/10.1080/00043125.2014.11519293.

Perales, F. Javier, and José Aróstegui. “The STEAM Approach: Implementation and Educational, Social and Economic Consequences.” Arts Education Policy Review, vol. 125, no. 2, 2024, pp.  59–67, https://doi.org/10.1080/10632913.2021.1974997.

Quigley, Cassie, and Dani Herro. “‘Finding the Joy in the Unknown’: Implementation of STEAM Teaching Practices in Middle School Science and Math Classrooms.” Journal of Science Education and Technology, vol. 25, no. 3, 2016, pp. 410–26, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-016-9602-z.

Spencer, John. “The LAUNCH Cycle: A K–12 Design Thinking Framework.” Spencer Education, 2020, spencereducation.com/the-launch-cycle/.

Wydick, Bruce. Shrewd Samaritan: Faith, Economics, and the Road to Loving Our Global Neighbor. Function, 2019.

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Miriam Lili believes a biblical worldview provides the most satisfactory and empowering answers to life’s questions. She has taught in Christian schools across Australia, and lectures with National Institute for Christian Education and Alphacrucis University College. Her recently completed PhD explores STEAM education.