Category: Food Science

Let’s Teach About Eggs

There’s a lot of information out there about eggs; often referred to as the perfect food! So, if you are in need of some ideas for teaching a unit or just a few lessons or labs about eggs, here are a variety of ideas and resources to choose from.

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Dry & Moist Heat Cooking Methods Lesson & Lab

I find that most students don’t know the difference between dry and moist cooking methods. This lesson and lab help them to understand the difference and explore the various ways that the same food can be prepared using different methods. Students enjoy the interactive activities within the lesson as well as preparing and tasting vegetables as they practice and apply some of the techniques. This lesson also incorporates the vocabulary tool Quizlet which helps students learn their terms in an interactive way. Students actually ask me to use Quizlet on a regular basis to learn and assess terms.

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Apples: Web-Activity & Labs

It’s fall, apples are in season and they are relatively inexpensive! Varieties of apples are sold everywhere from roadside stands to grocery stores so why not incorporate them into your foods class? That’s exactly what Jessica Uplinger of Field High School, Ohio did. Jessica created this lesson and lab because she has very large classes and needed a thematic unit where she could divide up her class and have half of them in the kitchen preparing a lab while the other half is engaged with an assignment. The end results? Her students ended up enjoying every aspect of this lesson, especially the labs! Why not give it a try in your foods class?

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Dehydration Backpacking Meal Challenge

This unique lesson was shared by Steve Watts and Sue Gottsch, from West High School, Sioux City Iowa. Sue teaches food science and other FCS classes. Sue says that the curriculum tends to get boring for the students so she has been trying to add some new labs each year. Their school system has coaches to help with ideas and technology etc. Steve is formerly a science teacher. Together, they decided to plan an interactive meal challenge.

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Gluten Free Culinary Unit

Gluten sensitivities and gluten free preferences are on the rise in the US, but what exactly is gluten and why are people so effected by it? Below you will find some resources to teach about gluten and it’s role in food. You will also find links to several culinary labs that are gluten free. The only thing not being addressed in this post is how FACS teachers handle this with students who are gluten free in the classroom. If you have successful tips on how to handle gluten free in your classroom, please share them in the comment section below.

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Popcorn: “Pop”pourri of Activities

This classic, fun food has been around for over 5000 years, transforms itself into snowflake and mushroom shapes, goes from un-edible to edible when exposed to heat, makes noise and is celebrated every January 19th!  You got it…it’s POPCORN!  These…

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Extreme Lesson Plan Make Over: Leavening Agents

Christine, a family and consumer science teacher from New Jersey submitted her leavening agents lesson plan for a makeover. This is what she said about it, “I love that I am attempting to show show the students the food science…

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Leavening Agents Lab

In this lesson, baking soda, baking powder, and yeast are compared and contrasted through lab experimentation with the three leavening agents. Time Frame: 52 Minutes Class Size: 24 Objectives The students will understand which chemical reactions occur that cause baked…

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Variations of the Chocolate Chip Cookie to Learn Measuring, Functions of Ingredients and Recipe Literacy

In the 1930’s Ruth Wafefield invented Tollhouse Cookies.  I wonder if she ever thought they’d still be so popular eighty years later and that so many variations of her original recipe would exist.  This demonstration, lesson and lab using two…

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Food Borne Illness Animoto Project

This is an investigative project for students to research specific food borne illnesses in more depth and then visually showcase them through Animoto, a free site that turns photos and video clips into professional video slideshows in minutes.

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