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Harry cutting dough to uniform size with a pasta machine
(click to enlarge)
Wellington High School is an inner-city decile 9 school with approximately 1,000 students. Year 9 students take a term each of Food Technology, Design Technology, Fabrics Technology and Graphic Design. Food Technology is offered as an option in Years 10-13, and seniors can choose Hospitality or Practical Food and Nutrition.
Marietjie van Schalkwyk had taught Home Economics for 14 years in South Africa before immigrating to New Zealand in 2003. When she started teaching at Wellington High School, where she first encountered the term Food Technology, she initially focussed on Home Economics-based units. Marietjie made the gradual transition to teaching Food Technology and is now an enthusiastic advocate of the benefits in making that change. See Teacher Talk pamphlet.
In 2005, during a Year 13 Kiwi Bread unit, a group of her students was making rewena (Māori bread) based on urenika (Māori potato). One batch came out of the oven a green colour and they spent some time trying to replicate this without success. The following year two students investigated why and how the bread had changed colour, and developed a recipe for making green bread. In 2007 another Year 13 student worked on developing green bread for mass production. See the Kiwi Bread case study.
Marietjie presented her work in Food Technology, including the Kiwi Bread unit, at the 2007 TENZ (Technology Education New Zealand) conference.
