| History
of Program
The Foods/Biology course
was developed as a way to encourage career and technical
teachers and academic teachers to join together in instruction.
The parallels were evident between the areas of science
and nutrition right from the start. A biology partnership
was favored over chemistry because it is offered as
a sophomore level course. This encourages students to
learn about the Family & Consumer Education Department
during their first year of high school. Also, it encourages
a future link with chemistry, physics and other advanced
science in our school.
The development of Foods/Biology
was started in the fall of 1993. It was determined that
to have students earn one credit of biology; the course
would need to be a full year course. In addition, one
credit hour of foods would be necessary to give adequate
time to the study of human food needs; safe food handling
and preparation; and consumerism. A two-hour block for
the entire year was set aside for the course. The first
year of implementation we had one section of the course
scheduled. The 2nd year the course expanded to 3 sections
with the teachers using a preparation hour to run the
two-hour blocks when necessary. Now the course is averaging
5-6 sections per year, running three-2 hour blocks,
and using 1.2-Family & Consumer Education teachers
and 1.2 Biology teachers.
Foods/Biology is a course
that attracts students who are health, diet and fitness
conscious. The course provides opportunities to deal
in-depth with subjects like eating disorders, athletic
diets, artificial foods and drugs, the environment,
consumerism, world hunger, careers and many more. The
biology component of the course was derived from a thorough
examination of the traditional academic biology course
and national science standards, and prepares for advanced
science courses at our school and beyond. The areas
of greatest emphasis in the course are critical thinking,
laboratory safety, food safety and scientific methods.
A foods lab and an adjoining
science lab work is the home base for the course. An
environmental chamber, window-to-science, green house,
live laboratory animals and the students are used as
experimental stations. We also extend our classroom
to the Challenge Ropes course, school field house climbing
wall, nature trail outside of our school, and local
farm and food production businesses.
Plants and animals as human
food sources are investigated throughout the course.
Whenever possible food is used as the medium for experimentation
to show scientific principles. During the plant and
animal units, we work closely with the Agriculture department,
Ag/Biology classes, and the green house classes.
The study of cells, DNA
and genetics leads us to the larger systems of the body.
In addition, the study of parasites, bacteria, yeast
and microorganisms related to food are essential to
the understanding of biology and safe food handling,
production, and preservation. In the food lab the students
prepare food items such as homemade yogurt, ice cream
and pretzels for scientific investigations.
Using the investigation of the body systems and functions
to guide us through the study of biology has been very
successful as each is easily related to foods and nutrition.
As we study each system, we prepare, experiment with
and often taste foods that play an important part in
the system development, maintenance, functioning or
repair. For example, the students learn a lot about
muscles as they climb our school’s high ropes
facility. We then can look at calorie usage and foods
that adequately refuel the body.
Another important part of
the course is environmental education. Because the home
kitchen produces the greatest quantity of trash, we
show students different ways to compost plant materials
by visiting a local composting demonstration site. We
even have worms in our biology lab to help with the
food lab waste.
Energy education has become
another important part of the course. The students learn
to use watt meters and light meters to investigate energy
usage. They also conduct research on the EnergyStar®
program and produce a MS PowerPoint presentation to
teach others about energy conservation.
The continued evolution
of this course is evident by our commitment to our students,
their needs and our subject matters. The students, in
their scientific approach, find new questions every
day that can be addressed. We are very excited about
what the future of this course may bring.
Because of the success of
Foods/Biology, the Family & Consumer Education department
facility has been updated, renovated and expanded. The
entire enrollment in the department has increased due
to the positive exposure we receive from the Foods/Biology
first year high school students. It is hoped that we
will continue to look for, innovate and design new and
different ways to improve the learning environment for
our students.
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