Performing Department
Applied Science Technology & E
Non Technical Summary
The Family and Consumer Sciences Education for Food Literacy (FACE Food Literacy) program is a multidisciplinary approach to enhance educators' ability to incorporate innovative experiential learning opportunities, focusing on integrating STEM into food and nutrition courses. Additionally, it seeks to foster a culture among Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) educators that emphasizes the sciences, helping students better understand agriculture's significance in their daily lives. The one-year, four-cohort program will provide 56 secondary FCS educators teaching food and nutrition courses with extensive learning opportunities. The program focuses on pedagogical content knowledge, contemporary resources, and innovative resource development. Participants will empower educators by engaging with online training modules, accessing a modern website with evidence-based resources, and engaging with mentors and peers. The program promotes the integration of STEM-related experiential learning activities that support communities.FACE Food Literacyprioritizes connecting educators with extension and industry professionals from the agricultural sector to provide holistic community learning experiences and expose students to various agricultural careers. The project aligns with the AFRI Farm Fill Priority Area of Food safety, nutrition, and health by promoting STEM-related experiences in FCS programs, positively impacting students' knowledge and behavior regarding food and nutrition. Additional impacts from the program include enhancing educators' capacity to contribute to the field through mentorship development. The mentorship component of the program supports educators at all career stages, as mentoring has been shown to contribute to teacher retention and self-efficacy.
Animal Health Component
20%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
60%
Applied
20%
Developmental
20%
Goals / Objectives
Objective 1: Empowering educators with the necessary skills and pedagogical content knowledge to create a curriculum that supports STEM-focused experiential learning.Objective 2: Provide evidence-based resources (i.e., online, curriculum, community) that support educators in sustaining a quality learning environment.Objective 3: Provide an incremental mentorship experience supporting teacher growth, paralleling mentorship development training to expand the teacher's capacity to contribute to agricultural family and consumer sciences.
Project Methods
The program includes components for 1) professional development, 2) resource supports, and 3) personal development that collectively provide comprehensive development for FCS teachers who maintain food and nutrition classes. This program will construct teacher tools and resources to support the next generation of food and agricultural sciences professionals while addressing the cross-cutting themes of the FCS Body of Knowledge (Nickols et al., 2009). Support 1: Objective 1: Empowering educators with the necessary skills and pedagogical content knowledge to create a curriculum that supports STEM-focused experiential learning. The FACE Food Literacy program provides FCS teachers with multiple forms of professional development. We will provide comprehensive training to emerging and established teachers. Each summer, a needs assessment will be conducted with responses from education, Extension, and industry stakeholders to determine training needs and program goals. Participants will complete the nine training modules between November and January. As participants complete the modules, they will conduct observations of the curriculum and student learning by synthesizing material from the modules to identify desired areas for growth. The first in-person training workshop will occur in conjunction with the UACTE mid-winter conference in early February. The program will run a three-hour workshop during the Friday evening conference block. One final 90-minute workshop will occur after the closing session on Saturday, where teachers will work with their FACE team mentor to construct a rough draft of a STEM-focused lesson. The mentor-mentee will create a timeline and personal goals for completing the curriculum project. A follow-up Zoom call will occur at the end of the month to identify any needs for a change in timeline. Teachers will collaborate with their FACE team mentors and peer mentors via email and Zoom between March and May to complete their project. Teachers will submit their projects to the PI in late May to review the projects and provide feedback. The teacher will modify the projects and create a presentation to share their work with their peers. The second in-person training workshop will occur in mid-June at the USBE multi-program CTE summer conference, also at a high school campus. The week-long conference is organized by CTE pathway blocks; each discipline only attends during their two assigned days. The program will host a three-hour workshop the day before or after the 2-day FCS blocks. This training will consist of self-evaluation, presentation of projects, and whole group reflection discussion. During a regular 2-day block conference, the program team will offer an open session to all teachers to advertise the program to new cohorts. Attendees will preview the resource website and books provided to program participants. Educator Resources: Objective 2: Provide evidence-based resources (i.e., online, curriculum, community) that support educators in sustaining a quality learning environment. The program will provide, maintain, and expand a resource website for teachers. The website will be shared with teachers along with the Canvas modules and will be accessible at any time during and after the program. The website will be a fluid and developing resource for teachers to use and share best practices. The website will use an already designed standard lesson plan template that supports curriculum development using Bloom's Taxonomy, modeling the logical sequencing of learning designed to progress students through the cognitive domains. Initially, three to five lesson plans will be shared with teachers to use in their classrooms and explore the fun and benefits of engaging students in experiential learning. By providing these models of well-designed curriculum, teachers have resources when creating their curriculum projects. Optional pre-post assessment tools will be provided for teachers to gauge students' food literacy, using constructs from the Judd-Murray Agricultural Literacy Instrument concerning food and nutrition themes. As teacher participants complete the program, their projects will be published on the website and shared among other program completers in July. Ideally, with alternative funding in the future, the website created for this program will be the early pilot for a more comprehensive teaching resource to share throughout Utah and the U.S. Mentorship: Objective 3: Provide an incremental mentorship experience supporting teacher growth, paralleling mentorship development training to expand the teacher's capacity to contribute to agricultural family and consumer sciences. The program employs a progressive introduction to various forms of mentorship. The first form of mentoring occurs through hour-long Zoom meetings led by the program PI and team mentors each quarter.Meetings serve as an opportunity for participants to discuss inquiries or reactions to Canvas modules and a chance to share experiences implementing the provided plans. Later meetings will be opportunities to exchange ideas and feedback on the curriculum project. During the first Zoom meeting, the participants will be paired with a program team mentor and peer mentor. An informal communication platform (e.g., GroupMe) will be chosen to provide a more personal connection to foster supportive peer mentoring experiences. In November, participants will have access to the mentorship development modules after they complete the PCL modules.After the first in-person meeting, the mentor/mentee will review the participant's ideas for the curriculum project and devise a timeline of project milestones and deadlines. Mentorship conversations between the program team and peer mentors will occur using the informal platform, along with at least two Zoom meetings. Management, Resources, & Personnel: All components of the program will be managed by the PI Boschetto. Dr. Boschetto will oversee all project personnel and manage the project timeline, budget, dissemination of information, and project participant recruitment. PI Boschetto will make necessary travel, lodging, and training accommodations for the in-person professional development events, facilitate mentoring partnerships and quarterly check-ins, and manage the resource website and Canvas modules. Finally, Dr. Boschetto will construct the online learning modules and work with an undergraduate student each year who will assist with professional development and will serve as a mentor. Dr. Clouse will oversee the project evaluation while working with an undergraduate student to assist with evaluations. Co-PI Clouse will also assist with resource development, editing, and reviewing curriculum projects and will serve as a mentor. Stacy Bevan and Maryann Schneider will work with Dr. Boschetto to create the website's lesson plan resources and PCK modules, serving as content experts to present innovative STEM- practices during in-person workshops. Co-PIs Bevan and Schneider will also mentor teachers. Finally, Co-PI Jenna Dyckman represents USU Extension and will assist with the in-person workshops by providing networking between teachers and county extension agents along with presenting during in-person sessions and will serve as a mentor. Dr. Boschetto will to work closely with UACTE FCS division officers and USBE staff. Much of the workshops will occur concurrently with established conference proceedings, narrowing the responsibilities associated with planning, management, and arranging participants' time commitments. A student worker will be hired to assist with developing resources, preparing supplies for in-person workshops, and data collection and entry.