30B-8 |
Increasing awareness of food science in high school vocational agriculture classes |
C. L. Lorenzen1, I. U. GRUEN1, and G. V. Laboube2. (1) Dept. of Food Science, Univ. of Missouri - Columbia, 256 Eckles Hall - Stringer Wing, Columbia, MO 65211, (2) Dept. of Agricultural Education, Univ. of Missouri - Columbia, 122 Gentry Hall, Columbia, MO 65211 Recruitment of undergraduate students into a Food Science program is critical to the mission of a university. For effective recruitment, high school students need to know that a Food Science program exists before entering the University. In order to increase awareness, we sponsored a continuing education workshop on incorporating Food Science into an agricultural education curriculum. The objective of the workshop was to give teachers hands-on experience with the Food Science curriculum. The participants in the workshop were middle and high school agricultural education teachers (n=18) from Missouri. This workshop was solicited through the Agricultural Education department at the University and fulfilled teachers’ continuing education requirements. All members of the Food Science faculty participated and presented lectures and conducted laboratories on food perishability and preservation; processing of grain, fruit, vegetable, meat, dairy and egg products; biochemistry of food; and nutritional and sensory properties of food. To evaluate the teachers, daily quizzes were given, and teachers created a Food Science experiment for use in their class. To evaluate the course, a questionnaire, which covered course content and presentation style, was given to the teachers. The mean quiz score was 21.6 (out of 25 points) ± 2.7. The mean grade given for the experiment assignment was 96.4 ± 2.9%. During the workshop, the lectures and experiments were placed on a web site available to all agricultural education teachers in Missouri. The course was evaluated on a four point scale where 1=poor and 4=excellent. Course content and format rated 3.7 and 3.6, respectively. The instructors’ overall teaching effectiveness rated 3.9. This workshop was successful in creating interest in a Food Science curriculum at the secondary education level. It has already been requested that we repeat this workshop next year for agricultural education teachers.
Session 30B, Education
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