BP602: Tararua Chocolates
Abstract
Reference: Case Study BP602
Classroom Practice: Year 11
Title: Tararua Chocolates
Duration: 15-17 weeks
Overview: The class was invited to design, develop and package moulded chocolate items. The best were chosen for production and sold as a fundraising/promotional item.
Focus Points:
Background
The Tararua Chocolates unit was developed in 2002 as part of Diana's first Year 11 Food Technology programme in which students could be assessed using internal and external NCEA Level 1 Achievement Standards. In the process of developing their outcomes students could also meet the requirements for a Bronze CREST award.
Since then the unit has been repeated, with ongoing development such as an increased level of interaction with the client. In 2004 the class won a Transpower Neighbourhood Engineers Award for the project.
The 2005 unit was presented as a workshop, with resources, at the 2005 Technology Education New Zealand (TENZ) Conference, and the material forms the basis of this case study.
Tararua College is a decile 5 school in Pahiatua with a roll of around 500 pupils; predominantly Pakeha with 15% Māori, 1% Pasifika and 1% Asian.
Technology is a compulsory subject at Year 9 and is offered as options in Years 10-11 as Food Technology and Materials Technology (with Information & Communication Technology available in Year 10). Years 12-13 have the option of Senior Technology.
Diana Eagle began her teaching career in Home Economics at Tararua College and taught for three years before leaving to raise a family. When her youngest child was three Diana was approached to return to the school, where she worked part time for a while before moving back into full time teaching in Food Technology.
Diana Eagle:
The Year 11 students who came into that first class had no idea of what they were going to do. They had come in and been quite an enthusiastic class in Year 10; done some nice crafty work, done a bit of chocolates, tried out a few things, had a bit of a go at making moulds; but they came in really not knowing what was going to happen.
Pre-planning
Beacon practice: In the very first Tararua Chocolates unit, in 2002, Diana saw the need for additional input from a professional food technologist. Through the Royal Society of New Zealand, she made contact with local food technologist and CREST national assessor Carol Pound. Carol has been involved in class visits over the past four years, introducing industry processes and concepts such as sensory testing and providing guidance and advice to Diana in her planning and delivery.
Unit content: After three years of development and refinement, the unit content was largely in place for 2005. Improvements in the 2005 unit had both Food and Materials Technology classes included in the project to ensure continuity in the teaching of technological practice in a student's first Level 1 project. Students would be able to use what they had learnt later in the year when working on their own project in the separate areas. The unit was taught to suit the class ability and incorporated Achievement Standard 1.4 (900048 v2) as an additional option for some students.
Client liaison: For the original unit in 2002, Diana approached local confectionery manufacturer Sweet Foods about developing a chocolate product specifically designed for a client in the community and which could be manufactured at the factory. After some discussion, Sweet Foods agreed to work with the school, and an approach was made to the Tararua District Council to be the first client. They had a new marketing manager, keen to be involved, and so Tararua Chocolates began in 2002. In this first year the sudden departure of the marketing manager meant the council did not have time to follow the product through so the class was not able to produce the chocolate product for the stakeholder. Tararua District Council was the client again the following year and the class was able to produce a quality chocolate product for them. In 2004 the client was the Tararua College Board of Trustees and the following year Hillcrest School in Pahiatua.
Hillcrest Principal Christine Law was happy to become involved as the client for 2005 because the project was child oriented, involving students at both schools, and included the Board of Trustees and wider school community. Some of the Tararua students had come through Hillcrest and this knowledge of the school's culture could came through in the designs produced, as, in fact, it turned out to be.
Delivery
Overview Delivery began with food technologist Carol Pound introducing the students to the use of planning and production tools such as Gantt and flow charts. The students met with their client and visited Sweet Foods factory to see ongoing production of chocolate products. After formulating a brief some time was spent on concept development. This involved not only developing the chocolates but designing moulds for them. After stakeholder feedback, the brief was refined and the Tararua Chocolate developed.
Weeks 1-5 introduced the class to the issues in a technology context. Carol talked with them about this in relation to the market and the consumer. This proved a user friendly way to bring in the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point
(HACCP) and sensory testing, plus a simple way of getting into ongoing production. At the same time that they were learning about Gantt charts, flow charts and production flow symbols the group was building up knowledge and skills in Food Technology - personal hygiene and safe food practices. Carol discussed key factors with the students and the priority of those key factors, which they then used to make decisions during their technological practice.
Weeks 6-8 saw Christine Law from Hillcrest School visiting to discuss needs and opportunities related to developing a chocolate product. A visit was made to Sweet Foods factory to see ongoing production of chocolate products in a factory setting. This led to discussion about constraints of production - moulds, chocolate, flavouring, textures, equipment, health and safety.
Week 9 involved the class considering stakeholders as they formulated a brief for the product, including factory key factors.
Weeks 10-12 were committed to concept development. The students were developing knowledge and skills related to mould making and the various materials available. At the same time that they were designing moulds and labelling the class was trialling chocolate making, after consultation with the stakeholder focus group as to what, if any, flavours and textures they wanted.
Weeks 13-16 was a period of brief refinement and product development based on feedback from Hillcrest School. The students made their chocolates and presented them to to the stakeholder's focus group to test their fitness for purpose.
Week 17 the students worked on their design journals, refining to a final brief based on feedback from the school and evaluating their product against this.
Christine Law:
You need to be encouraging to get what you want as the client.
Diana Eagle:
If you want to do serious technology in the senior school, then this is a good project to do because it brings in ongoing production in a fairly simple way.
Carol Pound :
Food is vital to the New Zealand economy; processed foods, plus a heightened emphasis on health and obesity concerns, are increasingly part of our way of life. It is important that students understand how foods are made and all the issues that go into developing a food product.
Outcomes
In 2005, the designs of four students' were chosen by Hillcrest School for their packets of chocolates, each containing four white and four dark chocolates.
In 2004, students were rewarded with more than satisfaction at production of an excellent chocolate - the project won $2,000 for the school in the Transpower Neighbourhood Engineers Awards.
Involvement in Beacon Practice in 2005 has allowed Diana time to write up the unit in detail, and subsequently to present it in a workshop at the 2005 Technology Education New Zealand (TENZ) Conference and share resources with participants.
This resource material shows that it's not hard to set up this type of unit and that there's a variety of things that can be done with the context - from Primary school to Year 13. It enables teachers to go into it in as much depth as they feel comfortable with and introduces interaction with a client; if done at Primary level the major stakeholder could be Mum, Dad or a friend.
Building a relationship with Carol helped Dianna forge links with a well established New Zealand company to such an extent that their food technologists have been her scholarship students' clients for the last two years. It also allowed her to make contacts within Massey University and the dairy industry. She feels that these all provide the high level of technological knowledge that a teacher may be lacking, introducing things such as ethical considerations and testing procedures appropriate for their project and practice.
Carol has noticed that the Year 11 students are now more confident in their technological practice - having done it since Year 9 - and that over five years the school has developed a better understanding and better teaching of technological practice. She is able to talk to the class about a lot more because of the level they're at compared with that first class.
Student Reflections:
"It was more fun than expected, more hands on stuff than just food."
"I quickly appreciated that it was an academic subject."
"It wasn't easier than other subjects, but more fun; you get involved more."
"I enjoyed the skills stuff, the interaction with the focus group and the feeling of reality."
Diana Eagle:
"In that first year when I was marking as a Level 1 assessor and the unit was used as a test case, the comment was "it's only a chocolate." The idea that a food product isn't a complicated thing - the consumability of food makes it seem that there isn't much to it. People now realise that there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes before you can manufacture a food product."
"I used to have Year 11 students asking 'What are we doing today?' Now I'm asking that question and they'll say, 'I'm doing this... or that...'. There's been a huge shift over these years; they're not so focussed on themselves, because they know the reality is that they're producing for somebody else."
Christine Law:
Nothing really needed to be changed from the Tararua end. We would perhaps do a little more preparation with our students in terms of how to answer the prepared questions for the focus group activity - particularly the little ones, who loved being involved in the process.
What next?
In 2006, Tararua Chocolates will be done in partnership with the Tararua District Council again, who came back on board very keen and with a bigger budget for projects such as this. The Council is planning an outdoor festival in October, so the 2006 unit may focus on producing chocolates for this, or perhaps on different chocolates for different occasions.
In 2005 the Year 11 Food Technology class did Tararua Chocolates first then a Special Baking unit. The 2006 group will finish Tararua Chocolates by week 7 of term 2 and will then go on to Special Baking. Those who are not able to cope will have another attempt at the given brief taught in Year 10 last year called Batters in a Bottle.
Diana looks to have established a routine where she develops one new technology unit per year and re-uses her other ones with minor 'tweaking'. 2007 will see Tararua Chocolates drop down to the Year 10 programme.
Another change in 2006 is the involvement of Year 11 Materials Technology students. This has been a natural evolution - over the years students had been making the chocolate moulds as part of their Design Technology classes, using the materials room. The two classes have been timetabled together, starting with 38 students which dropped to a more manageable 30 in total, so they can be put in one space and work across the two rooms.
"This year the assessment focus will be on Achievement Standard 1.2 (90046 v2) rather than on the ongoing production. Achievement Standard 1.4 (90048 v2) can be brought in for the students that are up to it," says Diana.
The school is now moving in the senior levels to just senior technology. Diana comments that Tararua Chocolates is more of a general technology unit, that there is not a lot of specific 'food' knowledge.
"This theme will continue, in that Year 12/13 students can focus on either Food, Materials Technology (which now includes Textiles) or Information and Communications Technology or any combinations of these," she says.
Diana Eagle:
Having the Food and Materials Technology classes work together means students learn off each other. The boys give the girls confidence in using the machinery, which often they're not too keen on - I've had boys in my class at times and they've definitely helped the girls with this. And the girls help with their finer design skills.
Two years later...
Diana took a break from teaching at the end of 2007 although she is still involved with education – revising and moderating standards for NZQA (New Zealand Qualifications Authority).
In July 2008, two years after this case study was published, Diana was asked to comment on developments.
What factors contributed to the success of the unit?
How has the unit evolved?
How has this unit influenced the teacher's ongoing practice?
Any comment for other people using this unit?
Curriculum links: Level 5/6
The Tararua Chocolates case study was originally published on Techlink in 2006. It details the unit of work delivered by Diana Eagle at Tararua College in the previous year. It is Techlink policy to review published materials after they have been on the site for two years.
This provides the opportunity to link the teacher planning and delivery of this unit to the Technology curriculum in The New Zealand Curriculum (2007). These pages identify some possible links to The learning environment and 'Values' education and developing 'Key competencies' for Level 5/6.
Teacher reflection on successful aspects of the Tararua Chocolates unit and directions taken since can be found at: Two years later...
Curriculum links: Level 5/6
The learning environment
In the planning and delivery of the Tararua Chocolates unit, the teacher:
Curriculum links: Level 5/6
'Values' education and developing 'Key competencies'
Values
The delivery of the unit developed student understanding of the institutional history and values of the local client primary school and its community. (workbook p2)
This understanding was used in the development of students' individual product concepts to address the fund-raising needs of the school community
Discussion relating to the fitness for purpose of the chocolate product, its packaging (including labelling), and production/distribution process brought in considerations such as economics, personal preferences, community health and consumer safety. (workbook p82, p83, p84, p85, p86, p87, p88)
Key competencies
Thinking
Using Language symbols and text
Managing self
Relating to others
Participating and contributing
