BELMONT — Union Local sixth-graders worked for two months, learning how a business works and making products to sell to people who attend this year’s Jingle Bell Alley on Saturday.

The students have been preparing for their project, JETS Jingle Bell Alley: Crafting for Commerce and Applying STEM and Economics to Handmade Projects. The project is funded through a $5,000 grant from Battelle and the Ohio STEM Learning Network. It covered the cost of supplies and materials needed for the project.

Social studies teacher Melissa Steadman guided her sixth grade students so they could work at home and in school to come up with business plans and make products to sell to the community.

This project is connected to Steadman’s economic standards that she must teach, which include learning about supply and demand and production and marketing.

The project also integrates STEM, or science, technology, engineering and math, skills to create products.

Students will sell all of the Christmas-themed products they made at the Jingle Bell Alley event from 9-11 a.m. Saturday in the Union Local Middle School gymnasium. They will keep all of the profits from their sales.

“That encourages the whole experience of connecting to some real world-type opportunities and a deeper understanding of the relevance of STEM and being able to create something and bring it to life,” said Jennifer Wooding, English, language arts and social studies curriculum and instruction coordinator.

Steadman said one of the strands from the state standards is about the economy with supply and demand needing to be covered in the curriculum, as well as who to produce to, what to produce and how to produce, which the school has been doing for the last 11 years or so.

After teaching from the book, Steadman also talks to her students about something they would be interested in making and who would want to buy the product, based on resources available.

The grant provides money for resources for students who might not have available products at home. Students worked in the classroom, and many of them at home with their parents and grandparents to create their products.

The grant helps to close some gaps and encourage STEM education through this project-based learning experience, relying on what families have at home or what Steadman brought together, Wooding said, and essentially the grant paid for $5,000 worth of materials and supplies. This project will now be sustained throughout the next few years because of the grant.

Steadman went through pages in the workbook with her students, creating worksheets they had to fill in that included what their product would be, how much they would charge, what natural resources they used, what capital goods they used, and who were the human resources they worked with, such as a parent or friend.

Students used hot glue guns, Styrofoam, craft markers, welded with their parents and worked with wood, using crafting materials and other resources to create these products. Steadman ordered small knitted hats and scarves the students used as well.

Students also made a business sign because they had to name their business.

Steadman said the students have gone through a long process of activities in class and a lot of activities they did at home as well.

She said the goal of the project is to figure out what someone has available to build a product, such as popsicle sticks or something people don’t have to spend a lot of money on.

The students are excited for Saturday and to sell the products they made, Steadman said, and some of them are looking forward to making money because they get to keep what they make.

Steadman wants the students to take away from this experience what it would be like to create a business and decide if it’s something they would ever want to proceed with when they are older. After the event Saturday, students will reflect on the project and how it turned out. Teaching them about the economy through this project at a young age will hopefully help the students understand a hard topic, Steadman said.

Wooding wants them to answer questions the students have, such as “Why am I learning this?” and “Why does it matter?” because a lot of classrooms across all subjects have challenges like that. She said this project addresses that because students are fully engaged in creating the products, understanding economics and integrating STEM aspects.

Sixth-graders are getting the foundations of business through this project that they can explore more in high school, Steadman said.

Students made products such as candles and wax melts, slime, hot chocolate, wooden Christmas trees, jewelry, ornaments and crafts.

“It’s just an amazing experience because it is hands on, and they get to brainstorm: ‘What could I make and sell that somebody would be interested in?'” Steadman said. “They just have so much fun doing it. They get to set up a table, and it’s just like a business — like a craft show. It’s very exciting for them, very hands on and a great opportunity and something that does align with the state (standards) but also something that they’re probably never going to forget that they did.”