Progress 09/01/08 to 08/31/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Objective 1: Conduct a research study to evaluate the efficacy of Hands On across diverse classroom settings and with a variety of student populations In Year 1, extensive revisions were made to the existing curricula. Several of states adopted new state standards in one or more content areas, requiring revisions to ensure that the lessons and activities continue to be aligned with state standards in all core disciplines. In year 2, partnerships were developed with school systems in New Mexico and Alabama with high Hispanic or African American populations to address this objective. During years 3 and 4, the project expanded to include 78 school teams across 11 states, involving 275 teachers and over 12,000 students. Of those, 25 were new school teams in a variety of urban and suburban settings. Student populations ranged in size from 12 to 400. Objective 2: Create a user-friendly Hands On website to enable classroom teachers from any state functional access to the curriculum The complete overhaul of the website was completed in year 2. The new site (www.handsonclassrooms.org) is now completely function and updated monthly to reflect modifications in the curriculum based on changes in state content standards. Objective 3: Develop a marketing and long-term sustainability plan In Year 2 of the project, a new project name, logo, and tagline were deployed. The project is now titled, "Hands On: Real World Lessons for Middle School Classrooms" with a tagline of "Food safety for learning, food safety for life." All promotional materials now reflect these changes. The new name and look have proven appealing to teachers, students, and parents and represent the interdisciplinary nature of the field of food science. Objective 4: Recruit new school system participants through networking at educational conferences Over the course of this project, project staff made concurrent session presentations at 19 state educational conferences and 5 national educational conferences. In addition, 7 poster presentations and 1 concurrent session presentation were made at national food science conferences. Objective 5: Recruit and train additional county extension agents The program's cooperative agreement with UT Extension is vital to the continued success and sustainability of the program. Involvement of extension agents during the current grant funding was not as prevalent as in previous years. Extension agents in Alabama and Tennessee continue to promote the program and use Hands On materials as a regular part of their work plans. Objective 6: Secure additional funding for the Food Safety in the Classroom program from non-federal sources In April-May 2009, a sponsorship campaign was initiated. Thirty-two food based companies were sent a direct mailing which included an introductory letter, project FAQs, and color brochure. Follow-up contact was made through emails and phone calls. No additional corporate sponsors were established through this campaign. GMA has continued its support of the Hands On program by donating a total of $50,000 during the course of this project. PARTICIPANTS: Individuals: Dr. Jennifer Richards has served as the project director during this reporting period. She has overseen all major project activities and components including: delivering teacher professional development, supervision all project personnel and graduate students, supervision of all rebranding activities and recruiting new schools and school districts. Jan Wager is a graduate student in Adult Learning who is partially funded by a research assistantship from this project. Jan handled all the correspondence with teachers and administrators to schedule professional development trainings and implementations. She also was responsible for making all revisions and corrections to the curriculum and ensuring that the program is using current, up-to-date content standards for each state. Dr. Amy Beavers serves as the Research Coordinator for the Hands On projects. She is responsible for management of all research related tasks including the management of onsite observations, data collection from students, teachers, and parents, and all project data analysis. Partner Organizations: The Grocery Manufacturers Association's Science and Education Foundation has been an active partner with this project by providing external funding of $25,000 for 2011. UT Extension and the Alabama Cooperative Extension Program have actively partner with project staff through the duration of the funding period to recruit and train participating teachers. Collaborators and Contacts: This project represents a truly interdisciplinary effort. Collaborators within the university include: UT Extension; faculty and staff from the Department of Food Science and Technology, the Department of Family and Consumer Science, the Department of Educational Psychology, and the Department of Theory and Practice in Teacher Education. Training and Professional Development: For the duration of this project, the project staff have delivered 38 teacher professional development trainings to teachers in 11 states reaching 275 teachers. TARGET AUDIENCES: Target Audiences: The program primarily served middle school students and their classroom teachers in AL, SC, TN, KY, VA, GA, PA, IN, NM, NC, and MO. Extension agents in Tennessee and Alabama were also targeted audiences. School administrators and parents were secondary targets. Although the project did not directly target these audiences, strong anecdotal evidence suggests an impact on their knowledge and behaviors. Efforts: The core of this project is a formal curriculum designed to be taught in middle school classrooms as part of the regular instruction in math, science, social studies, and language arts classes. This curriculum helps teachers prepare their students to be successful on learning competencies tested on end-of-year state assessments. The curriculum includes several hands-on laboratory exercises taught in the science component of the curriculum. The curriculum provides a model of "best practices" for adolescent learners through interdisciplinary instruction and research-based teaching strategies. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Hands On: Real World Lessons for Middle School Classrooms provides effective food safety education to young consumers through an interdisciplinary curriculum that is integrated with state curriculum standards for core subject areas. Of the 78 participating teams, 10 were selected for data collection and analysis. Participating students demonstrated statistically significant improvements in their levels of food safety knowledge. Improved student averages on the food safety dispositional scale indicated an increased tendency towards desirable food safety behavior and attitudes at the end of the food safety unit. Students in 70% of schools showed significant increases in attitudes and behaviors from the pre-test to the post-test. Students in 69% of schools conducting follow-up tests maintained significant increases from pre-assessment to follow-up, indicating sustainability of these attitudes and behaviors. A majority of the participating teacher groups demonstrated statistically significant improvements in the knowledge component, and the attitudes component between their pre-test and post-test of training sessions. Both students and teachers reported favorable opinions regarding the program and its impact on changes in food safety behaviors. Data on the impact of the curriculum on student knowledge, attitudes and behaviors across diverse populations was collected. Students completed a pre and posttest survey instrument developed for a previous NIFSI proposal (NIFSI TEN 2005-51110). Students gain change in knowledge represents significant growth of 12.4%. Students also showed significant gains in behavior with a mean increase of 2.7%. These results indicate that the Hands On curriculum is an effective food safety educational tool across diverse populations and settings. Data on the impact of the curriculum on student knowledge, attitudes and behaviors were also collected from a small sample of parents (n = 23) at one middle school. Although slightly less than half of the parents reported that their student pointed out food handling mistakes to adults (43%), a similar percentage of parents (43 - 48%) reported that someone in their household had recently changed their behaviors resulting from discussions with their child. The following behavior changes by an adult were reported most frequently: Hand washing prior to eating, storing leftovers correctly, following temperature instructions, keeping food preparation surfaces and utensils separate for fruits or vegetables and meats. Parents also provided anecdotal evidence of their children's knowledge and changes in behaviors that are related to food safety. One parent stated that a discussion guide about food safety behaviors would be helpful to talk to their child about food safety at home.
Publications
- Richards, J., Pratt, C., Skolits, G., Burney, J., (2012). Developing and evaluating the impact of a train-the-trainer model for effectively disseminating food safety education to middle school students. Journal of Extension 50(4).
- Beavers, A. & Richards, J. (2012). Investigating Change of Adolescent Food Safety Self-efficacy through Educational Interventions. Presented at the Annual Conference of the Institute of Food Technologists, June 25-287, 2012, Las Vegas, NV.
- Pratt, C. & Richards, J. (2012). Developing a model for effective K-12 outreach programs: Hands On: Real World Lessons for Middle School Classrooms. Presented at the Annual Conference of the Institute of Food Technologists, June 25-28, 2012, Las Vegas, NV.
- Richards, J. & Beavers, A. (2011). Hands On: Real World Lessons for Middle School Classrooms. Concurrent session presented at the Annual Conference of the Alabama Science Teachers Association, October 18, 2011, Birmingham, AL.
- Beavers, A. & Richards, J. (2011). Standards Based Assessment for Inquiry Based Classrooms. Concurrent session presented at the Annual Conference of the Alabama Science Teachers Association, October 18, 2011, Birmingham, AL.
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Progress 09/01/10 to 08/31/11
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Objective 1: Conduct a research study to evaluate the efficacy of Hands On across diverse classroom settings and with a variety of student populations During year 3, the project expanded to include 51 school teams across 11 states, involving 184 teachers and over 8,000 students. Of those, 25 were new school teams in a variety of urban and suburban settings. Student populations ranged in size from 12 to 400. Five teacher training sessions were offered with a total of 28 participants trained. Student outcomes were assessed using a survey instrument over the course of the two grant fundings. Data on the impact of the curriculum on student knowledge, attitudes and behaviors were also collected from a small sample of parents (n = 23) at one middle school. Approximately one-fourth of the parents of the students participating in the Hands On curriculum implementation responded to a parent survey. Objective 2: Create a user-friendly Hands On website to enable classroom teachers from any state functional access to the curriculum The complete overhaul of the website was completed in year 2. The new site (www.handsonclassrooms.org) is now completely function and updated monthly to reflect modifications in the curriculum based on changes in state content standards. Objective 3: Develop a marketing and long-term sustainability plan This objective was completed in year 2. Objective 4: Recruit new school system participants through networking at educational conferences Project staff made concurrent session presentations at 4 state educational conferences and 1 national education conference. In addition, 2 poster presentations were made at national food science conferences. Objective 5: Recruit and train additional county extension agents The program's cooperative agreement with UT Extension is vital to the continued success and sustainability of the program. Involvement of extension agents during the current grant funding was not as prevalent as in previous years. Extension agents in Alabama and Missouri were recruited during this period; however, there was not as much engagement with previous agent participants in Tennessee. Decisions regarding training and issues with local school participation minimized new involvement. Objective 6: Secure additional funding for the Food Safety in the Classroom program from non-federal sources Working in conjunction with the UT Office of Development, project staff (Richards and Kolk) have developed a template grant application that can be customized for submission to a number of educational foundations as we attempt to secure program funding from non-federal sources. One educational foundation grant was submitted but was not selected for funding. Foundational grants for WalMart and Coke will be submitted within the next six months. PARTICIPANTS: Individuals: Dr. Jennifer Richards has served as the project director during this reporting period. She has overseen all major project activities and components including: delivering teacher professional development, supervision all project personnel and graduate students, supervision of all rebranding activities and recruiting new schools and school districts. Jan Wager is a graduate student in Elementary Education who is partially funded by a research assistantship from this project. Jan handled all the correspondence with teachers and administrators to schedule professional development trainings and implementations. She also was responsible for making all revisions and corrections to the curriculum and ensuring that the program is using current, up-to-date content standards for each state. Erica Picard was as the graduate research assistant responsible for the ordering, maintenance, and shipping of all curricular materials and supplies. In addition, Erica provided all assessment instruments to the schools. This project also supported partial funding of several consultants. Allie Kolk has also been responsible for developing and submitting grant applications to educational foundations as a means of building sustainability for the project beyond the granting period. Dr. Amy Beavers has also served as a consultant responsible for analyzing the data resulting from pre-, post-, and follow-up tests administered to students and manuscript development. Partner Organizations: The Grocery Manufacturers Association's Science and Education Foundation has been an active partner with this project by providing external funding of $25,000 for 2010-2011. In addition, members of the organization have provided expertise in marketing the program to industry organizations who may be interested in sponsoring the project. GMA's donation helped fund a one-half graduate research assistantship and implementation of the Hands On program in 3 schools in 2 states. Additionally, the Institute of Food Technologist officially endorsed the Hands On curriculum and provides copies of the program to interested parties across the country. In total, the Hands On project partnered with 51 schools in 11 states. Collaborators and Contacts: This project represents a truly interdisciplinary effort. Collaborators within the university include: UT Extension; faculty and staff from the Department of Food Science and Technology, the Department of Family and Consumer Science, the Department of Educational Psychology, and the Department of Theory and Practice in Teacher Education. Training and Professional Development: In this reporting period, the project staff has delivered five teacher training sessions were offered with a total of 28 participants trained. TARGET AUDIENCES: Target Audiences: The program primarily served middle school students and their classroom teachers in AL, SC, TN, KY, VA, GA, PA, IN, NM, NC, and MO. Extension agents in Tennessee and Alabama were also targeted audiences. School administrators and parents were secondary targets. Although the project did not directly target these audiences, strong anecdotal evidence suggests an impact on their knowledge and behaviors. Efforts: The core of this project is a formal curriculum designed to be taught in middle school classrooms as part of the regular instruction in math, science, social studies, and language arts classes. This curriculum helps teachers prepare their students to be successful on learning competencies tested on end-of-year state assessments. The curriculum includes several hands-on laboratory exercises taught in the science component of the curriculum. The curriculum provides a model of "best practices" for adolescent learners through interdisciplinary instruction and research-based teaching strategies. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Hands On: Real World Lessons for Middle School Classrooms provides effective food safety education to young consumers through an interdisciplinary curriculum that is integrated with state curriculum standards for core subject areas. A total of 8,197 students (from 51 schools), 182 teachers participated in the program over the past year. Of these schools, 40 schools were funded by this proposal (2008-01692). An additional 11 were funded from another NIFSI proposal (2009-01963) or from a donation made by the Grocery Manufacturers Association's Science and Education Foundation. Participation schools were located in AL, SC, TN, KY, VA, GA, PA, IN, NM, NC, and MO. Of these, 10 schools were selected for data collection and analysis. In all categories of knowledge tested (overall, science, mathematics, language arts, and social studies), scores improved from pre-test to post-test. Participating students demonstrated statistically significant improvements in their levels of performance (knowledge) between their pre-test and the a) post-test and b) follow-up test. Improved student averages on the food safety dispositional scale indicated an increased tendency towards desirable food safety behavior and attitudes at the end of the food safety unit. Students in 70% of schools showed significant increases in attitudes and behaviors from the pre-test to the post-test. Students in 69% of schools conducting follow-up tests maintained significant increases from pre-assessment to follow-up, indicating sustainability of these attitudes and behaviors. A majority of the participating teacher groups demonstrated statistically significant improvements in the knowledge component, and the attitudes component between their pre-test and post-test of training sessions. Both students and teachers reported favorable opinions regarding the program and its impact on changes in food safety behaviors. Although slightly less than half of the parents reported that their student pointed out food handling mistakes to adults (43%), a similar percentage of parents (43 - 48%) reported that someone in their household had recently changed their behaviors resulting from discussions with their child (see Table 15). The following behavior changes by an adult were reported most frequently: Hand washing prior to eating, storing leftovers correctly, following temperature instructions, keeping food preparation surfaces and utensils separate for fruits or vegetables and meats. Parents also provided anecdotal evidence of their children's knowledge and changes in behaviors that are related to food safety. One parent stated that a discussion guide about food safety behaviors would be helpful to talk to their child about food safety at home. As part of the sustainability model, the project secured a renewal donation for $25,000 from the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA). GMA has indicated interest in providing additional support for the 2012 fiscal year.
Publications
- Beavers, A., Brandon, M, & Richards, J. (2011). Results of adolescents food safety self-efficacy using a stratified random sample. Presented at the Annual Conference of the Institute of Food Technologists, June 11-14, 2011, New Orleans, LA.
- Beavers, A., Picard, E., & Richards, J.. (2010) Teachers as Learners: Implications of Adult Education for Professional Development. Presented at the 2010 Symposium on Middle Level Teacher Preparation, National Middle School Association, November 3, 2010, Baltimore, MD.
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Progress 09/01/09 to 08/31/10
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Objective 1: Conduct a research study to evaluate the efficacy of Hands On across diverse classroom settings and with a variety of student populations Partnerships were developed with school systems in New Mexico and Alabama to address this objective. Teachers from three high poverty, predominately Hispanic schools in New Mexico, and three high poverty, predominately African American schools in Birmingham, AL were trained to use the Hands On (formerly Food Safety in the Classroom) program. These schools are scheduled to implement the program in December 2010 and January 2011. Pre, post, and follow-up assessments will be administered to the students in these schools. In addition, parents will be asked to complete a survey approximately 6 weeks after implementation to determine to what extent information is flowing home to the parent and what impact the curriculum may have on students' behavior at home. Objective 2: Create a user-friendly Hands On website to enable classroom teachers from any state functional access to the curriculum The complete overhaul of the website that was begun in year 1 of the project is now complete. The new site (www.handsonclassrooms.org) is now completely function and updated monthly to reflect modifications in the curriculum based on changes in state content standards. Objective 3: Develop a marketing and long-term sustainability plan The new project name, logo, and tagline developed in Year 1 as a part of a long-term marketing and sustainability plan have been completely phased in. All promotional materials now reflect these changes. The response has been overwhelmingly positive. Project staff continue to seek opportunities to recruit and promote the program through state education newsletter publications and state and national conferences. Objective 4: Recruit new school system participants through networking at educational conferences Project staff made concurrent session presentations at 5 state educational conferences and 1 national education conference. These presentations resulted in approximately 102 new teacher contacts. In addition, 1 poster presentation and 1 concurrent session presentation were made at national food science conferences. Objective 5: Recruit and train additional county extension agents The program's cooperative agreement with UT Extension is vital to the continued success and sustainability of the program. This year the program expanded its efforts to include the Alabama Cooperative Extension Service. All 9 Food Safety, Preparation, and Preservation agents in the state were trained as trainers for the Hands On program. These agents are now working with school systems in their home districts to schedule training sessions and implementations of the Hands On program. PARTICIPANTS: Individuals: Dr. Jennifer Richards has served as the project director during this reporting period. She has overseen all major project activities and components including: delivering teacher professional development, supervision all project personnel and graduate students, supervision of all rebranding activities and recruiting new schools and school districts. Carrie Pratt is a graduate student in Reading Education who is partially funded by a research assistantship from this project. Carrie handled all the correspondence with teachers and administrators to schedule professional development trainings and implementations. Carrie also was responsible for making all revisions and corrections to the curriculum and ensuring that the program is using current, up-to-date content standards for each state. Beginning in May, Erica Picard joined the project as a graduate research assistant. She was responsible for the ordering, maintenance, and shipping of all curricular materials and supplies. In addition, Erica provides all assessment instruments to the schools and is responsible for analyzing the data resulting from pre-, post-, and follow-up tests administered to students. This project also supported partial funding of several consultants. Allie Kolk served as a consultant to create the layout and design of the new project website (www.handsonclassrooms.org). Allie has also been responsible for developing and submitting grant applications to educational foundations as a means of building sustainability for the project beyond the granting period. Amy Beavers has also served as a consultant to handle data analysis and manuscript development. Partner Organizations: The Grocery Manufacturers Association's Science and Education Foundation has been an active partner with this project by providing external funding of $25,000 for 2009. In addition, GMA members have provided expertise in marketing the program to industry organizations who may be interested in sponsoring the project. GMA's donation helped fund a half time graduate research assistantship and implementation of the Hands On program in 3 schools in 2 states. Additionally, the Institute of Food Technologist officially endorsed the Hands On curriculum and provides copies of the program to interested parties across the country. Strong partnerships have also been formed with faculty at the University of Missouri and New Mexico State University to help recruit and train schools in those states. In total, the Hands On project partnered with 42 schools (approximately 5,400 students) in 8 states. Collaborators and Contacts: This project represents a truly interdisciplinary effort. Collaborators within the university include: UT Extension; faculty and staff from the Department of Food Science and Technology, the Department of Marketing and Public Relations, the Department of Educational Psychology, and the Department of Theory and Practice in Teacher Education; and UT Creative Services. Training and Professional Development: In this reporting period, the project staff has delivered 10 teacher professional development trainings to teachers in MO, IN, KY, AL, PA, IN, SC, and NC reaching 51 teachers. TARGET AUDIENCES: Target Audiences: The program primarily served middle school students and their classroom teachers in MO, TN, KY, AL, SC, NC, IN, PA, and VA. Extension agents in Tennessee and Alabama were also targeted audiences. School administrators and parents were secondary targets. Although the project did not directly target these audiences, strong anecdotal evidence suggests an impact on their knowledge and behaviors. Efforts: The core of this project is a formal curriculum designed to be taught in middle school classrooms as part of the regular instruction in math, science, social studies, and language arts classes. This curriculum helps teachers prepare their students to be successful on learning competencies tested on end-of-year state assessments. The curriculum includes several hands-on laboratory exercises taught in the science component of the curriculum. The curriculum provides a model of "best practices" for adolescent learners through interdisciplinary instruction and research-based teaching strategies. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Hands On: Real World Lessons for Middle School Classrooms provides effective food safety education to young consumers through an interdisciplinary curriculum that is integrated with state curriculum standards for core subject areas. Over the past year the project focused on expanding to areas of the country outside of the southeastern US. Missouri, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and New Mexico schools were added to the program. A total of 5,753 students (from 42 schools), 122 teachers, and 11 extension agents participated in the program over the past year. Of these schools, 30 schools were funded by this proposal (2008-01692). An additional 12 were funded from another NIFSI proposal (2009-01963) or from a donation made by the Grocery Manufacturers Association's Science and Education Foundation. Participation schools were located in AL, SC, TN, KY, VA, PA, IN, and MO. Of these, 7 schools were selected for data collection and analysis. Analysis of these data shows that the curriculum is highly effective at raising student knowledge (12.8% gain; p<.001) and in students' food handling behaviors (3.7% gain; p<.001). Anecdotal evidence from teachers and students demonstrates the program's continued effectiveness one full year after implementation. As part of the sustainability model, the project secured a renewal donation for $25,000 from the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA). GMA has indicated interest in providing additional support for the 2011 fiscal year.
Publications
- Richards, J., Pratt, C., Skolits, G., Burney, J., (2010). Developing and evaluating the impact of a train-the-trainer model for effectively disseminating food safety education to middle school students. Journal of Extension (In Review).
- Pratt, C., Brandon, M., Draughon, F. A., & Richards, J. (2010) "Measuring differences in gender and race on middle school students' food safety behaviors and knowledge." Presented at the Annual Conference of the IFT, July 17-20, 2010, Chicago, IL.
- Richards, J., Brandon, M., & Pratt, C. (2010). "A Novel Approach to Affecting Adolescents' Food Safety Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviors." Food Safety Education Conference, March 23-26, 2010, Atlanta, GA.
- Richards, J. and Pratt, C. (2010)"Hands On: Real World Lessons for Middle School Classrooms." Concurrent session presented at the Annual Conference of the North Carolina Middle School Conference, March 14-16, 2010, Greensboro, NC.
- Bumgarner, K. & Richards, J. (2010) "Hands On: Real World Lessons for Middle School Classrooms." Concurrent session presented at the Annual Conference of the South Carolina Middle School Association, March 5-7, 2010, Myrtle Beach, SC.
- Richards, J. (2010)"Hands On: Real World Lessons for Middle School Classrooms." Concurrent session presented at the Annual Conference of the Missouri Middle School Association-Western Region, February 6, 2010, Warrensburg, MO.
- Bumgarner, K. & Richards, J. (2009)"Hands On: Real World Lessons for Middle School Classrooms." Concurrent session presented at the Annual Conference of the South Carolina Science Council, November 6-7, 2009, Myrtle Beach, SC.
- Richards, J. & Pratt, C. (2009) "Hands On: Real World Lessons for Middle School Classrooms." Concurrent session presented at the 36th Annual Conference of the National Middle School Association, November 5-7, 2009, Indianapolis, IN.
- Richards, J. & Pratt, C. (2009) "Hands On: Real World Lessons for Middle School Classrooms." Concurrent session presented at the Annual Conference of the Missouri Middle School Association, September 11-12, 2009, Osage Beach, MO.
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Progress 09/01/08 to 08/31/09
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Conduct a research study to evaluate the efficacy of Food Safety in the Classroom across diverse classroom settings and with a variety of student populations. In preparation for the research study in Year 2, extensive revisions were made to the existing curriculum. Several project states adopted new state standards in one or more content areas, requiring revisions to ensure that the lessons and activities continue to be aligned with state standards in all core disciplines. Create a user-friendly Food Safety in the Classroom website to enable classroom teachers from any state functional access to the curriculum. A new website was designed to promote our new program name, logo, and tagline. This website is considerably streamlined to be more accessible and user-friendly. As new state curricula are added to the project, they are uploaded onto the website to ensure accessibility of the project to teachers throughout the US. Develop a marketing and long-term sustainability plan. The new project name, logo, and tagline were developed as a part of a long-term marketing and sustainability plan. Through a survey administered to a randomly selected sample of Tennessee middle school teachers, it became obvious that the old name, Food Safety in the Classroom, was creating a barrier to schools accepting the program. Many of those surveyed responded that they were not interested in the project because, "I don't use food in my classroom." The new name, Hands On: Real World Lessons for Middle School Classrooms, and the new tagline, Food Safety for learning, Food Safety for life, were developed to better represent the purpose of the project: to provide high quality food safety education through interdisciplinary lessons that are correlated to state content standards. Mailings to promote the new look and new name of the program were sent out to all teachers in our database. Recruit new school system participants through networking at educational conferences Project staff made concurrent session presentations at 6 state educational conferences. These presentations resulted in approximately 84 new teacher contacts. In addition, 2 poster presentations were made at a national food science conference. Recruit and train additional county extension agents: The program's cooperative agreement with UT Extension is vital to the continued success and sustainability of the program. As such, a two day training workshop was held at the UT campus in Knoxville on January 6-7, 2009. Nine extension agents from TN, 6 from GA, and 2 from AL were trained to use the Hands On program in their districts. Secure additional funding for the Food Safety in the Classroom program from non-federal sources: In April-May 2009, a sponsorship campaign was initiated. Thirty-two food companies were sent a mailing which included an introductory letter, project FAQs, and color brochures. Follow-up contact was made through emails and phone calls. No additional corporate sponsors were established through this campaign. GMA has agreed to provide some additional leadership and expertise to help guide future sponsorship campaigns. PARTICIPANTS: Individuals: Dr. Jennifer Richards has served as the project director during this reporting period. She has overseen all major project activities and components including: delivering teacher professional development, supervision all project personnel and graduate students, supervision of all rebranding activities and recruiting new schools and school districts. Carrie Pratt is a graduate student in Reading Education who is partially funded by a research assistantship from this project. Carrie handled all the correspondence with teachers and administrators to schedule professional development trainings and implementations. Carrie also was responsible for making all revisions and corrections to the curriculum and ensuring that the program is using current, up-to-date content standards for each state. Monica Brandon is a graduate student in Food Science and Technology. She was responsible for the ordering, maintenance, and shipping of all curricular materials and supplies. In addition, Monica provides all assessment instruments to the schools and is responsible for analyzing the data resulting from pre-, post-, and follow-up tests administered to students. This project also supported partial funding of several consultants. Erin Brady served as a marketing and public relations intern from January-April, 2009. Erin helped manage the transition from the old project name, Food Safety in the Classroom, to the new name, Hands On: Real World Lessons for Middle School Classrooms. Erin was responsible for coordinating efforts with Creative Services and Graphic Arts on campus to ensure the smooth transition and oversee the printing of new promotional materials. Allie Kolk served as a consultant to create the layout and design of the new project website (www.handsonclassrooms.org). Ben Walker was hired as a consultant to develop the website and oversee the transfer of content from the old site to the new one. Partner Organizations: The Grocery Manufacturers Association's Science and Education Foundation has been an active partner with this project by providing external funding of $25,000. In addition, members of the organization have provided expertise in marketing the program to industry organizations who may be interested in sponsoring the project. GMA's donation helped fund a half graduate research assistantship and implementation of the Food Safety in the Classroom program in 5 schools in 3 states. In total, this project partnered with 27 schools (approximately 3,500 students) in 7 states. Collaborators and Contacts: This project represents a truly interdisciplinary effort. Collaborators within the university include: UT Extension; faculty and staff from the Department of Food Science and Technology, the Department of Marketing and Public Relations, the Department of Educational Psychology, and the Department of Theory and Practice in Teacher Education; and UT Creative Services. Training and Professional Development: In this reporting period, the project staff has delivered 14 teacher professional development trainings to teachers in TN, KY, AL, SC, NC, and VA reaching 97 teachers. TARGET AUDIENCES: Target Audiences: The program primarily served middle school students and their classroom teachers in TN, KY, AL, SC, NC, and VA. Extension agents in Tennessee and Alabama were also targeted audiences. School administrators and parents were secondary targets. Although the project did not directly target these audiences, strong anecdotal evidence suggests an impact on their knowledge and behaviors. Efforts: The core of this project is a formal curriculum designed to be taught in middle school classrooms as part of the regular instruction in math, science, social studies, and language arts classes. This curriculum helps teachers prepare their students to be successful on learning competencies tested on end-of-year state assessments. The curriculum includes several hands-on laboratory exercises taught in the science component of the curriculum. The curriculum provides a model of "best practices" for adolescent learners through interdisciplinary instruction and research-based teaching strategies. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
Food Safety in the Classroom provides effective food safety education to young consumers through an interdisciplinary curriculum that is integrated with state curriculum standards for core subject areas. The final year of this project focused on the continued expansion of the program to schools throughout TN and neighboring states in the southeastern region of the US and the development of a strong sustainability model. A total of 3,370 students (from 27 schools), 63 teachers, and 17 extension agents participated in the program over the past year. Of these schools, 17 schools were funded by this proposal (2008-01692). An additional 10 were funded from a previous proposal (2005-02098) or from a donation made by the Grocery Manufacturers Association's Science and Education Foundation. Participation schools were located in TN, GA, KY, NC, SC, and AL and VA. Of these, 6 schools were selected for data collection and analysis. Analysis of these data shows that the curriculum is highly effective at raising student knowledge (12.8% gain; p<.001) and in students' food handling behaviors (5.4% gain; p<.001). Six weeks after implementation students retained 98.6% of their total knowledge gain. Anecdotal evidence from teachers and students demonstrates the program's continued effectiveness one full year after implementation. A sustainability model for training teachers to use Food Safety in the Classroom was expanded through a partnership with UT Extension. Extension educators attended an intensive 2-day training seminar in January 2009. These trained Extension educators then recruited 7 new participating schools and trained new teachers to implement Food Safety in the Classroom with minimal support from the primary research team. Statistical analysis clearly shows that teacher workshops conducted by extension agents were statistically similar to those conducted by project staff. Results of the FSIC workshops conducted by extension agents showed that teachers demonstrated positive increases in food safety attitudes (p=.000), behaviors (p=.001), and knowledge (p=.000). Overall, the mean pretest was 75.47 8.930(100 point scale) and the mean posttest score was 87.58 7.030, representing an overall gain of 12.1%. These gains were statistically consistent to those shown by teachers who were trained by project staff (p=.242). As part of the sustainability model, the project secured a renewal donation for $25,000 from the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA). GMA has indicated interest in providing additional support for the 2010 fiscal year. A new partnership has been formed with McKee Foods. Project staff and McKee personnel are currently working to recruit local school for this partnership.
Publications
- Pedigo, A.; Richards, J.; Saxton, A.M.; DSouza, D., & Draughon, F.A. (2009) Characterization of food safety knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of adolescents in east Tennessee. Journal of Food Protection Trends 29(10), 626-641.
- Richards, J. & Skolits, G. (2008). The impact of professional development on teacher adoption of a novel instructional strategy. Submitted to Research in the Schools (In Press).
- Skolits, G. & Richards, J. (2008). Designing and Applying Project Fidelity Assessment for a Teacher Implemented Middle School Instructional Improvement Pilot Intervention. Submitted to the Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation (In Press).
- Burney, J.; Richards, J.; & Draughon, F. A. (2009). Food Safety in the Classroom. Presented at the Annual Conference of the Society for Nutrition Education, July 11-14, 2009 in New Orleans, LA.
- Pratt, C.; Draughon, F. A.; Burney, J.; & Richards, J. (2009). Evaluating the effectiveness of a train-the-trainer model for the delivery of food safety education. Presented at the Annual Conference of the Institute of Food Technologists, June, 8-10, 2009, Anaheim, CA.
- Brandon, M; Skolits, G.; Davidson, P.M.; & Richards, J (2009). Impact of adolescent food safety self-efficacy on food safety knowledge and behaviors. Presented at the Annual Conference of the Institute of Food Technologists, June, 8-10, 2009, Anaheim, CA.
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