A group of Lanier Career Academy students on Wednesday spent an entire class session doing nothing but eating ice cream.

While that may sound like they were goofing off, in fact they were hard at work providing feedback to Mayfield Dairy Farms President Scottie Mayfield.

Mayfield, whose company is a new partner in education for the school, brought in three of the company’s most popular flavors and asked the students to compare them blindly to several other competitive brands.

Mayfield also brought in eight new flavors for the students to try, including Pomegranate Medley, Cherry Chunk and Moo-ionaire’s Java.

Despite the many unique flavors that the students were able to sample, some preferred the basics.

"The (French) vanilla was my favorite," said Layza Guzman, a student in Debbie Clark’s entrepreneurship class.

Guzman isn’t alone in her choice. According to Mayfield, vanilla is the company’s No. 1 seller.

Prior to sampling the ice cream, the students were given several instructions: No talking and be brutally honest.

"The main thing with a focus group is for participants to tell the truth. We ask them not to talk because if one person shares their opinion it may influence the opinions of other people in the group," Mayfield said.

"Normally, our participants are a bit older and tend to have two or three kids, so it will be interesting to see what the students think."

Besides giving Mayfield feedback on his company’s products, the students also received several important business lessons, like the importance of considering customer opinions.

"A few years ago, we introduced a cookies and cream flavor, but we got our butt whipped in the focus group," Mayfield said. "So we reformulated the recipe and brought back the same people from the first tasting. This time we brought in the original recipe, the reformulated one and several of the top competitors from last time. In the second focus group, our reformulated recipe won."

Clark’s students are studying business operations.

"In my class, I try to teach the students all of the components that are necessary for them to operate their own businesses. We just finished a unit on focus groups and survey customers, so it worked out perfectly with (Mayfield’s) visit," Clark said.

"Even if they don’t want to own their own business, I try to teach them things that will help them to be successful consumers."