Big Bikkie
More views of students preparing "Big Bikkies"
Outcome
Carol acts as Diana's sounding board and she gives her advice. She visited the classroom during the unit to stimulate the students thinking - ask them questions from a food technologist's point of view. "I asked them questions to encourage them and to guide their practice. It's usually a class based discussion and I challenge their ideas".
Carol has worked with senior students and has encouraged some to consider Food Technology as a career
Benefits for me personally are that it gets me thinking about where Food Technology is at in schools which is useful for work at Massey University. It's a chance to show Food Technology as an academic, challenging and interesting area of study and work because I get a chance to tell students about what I do. In the senior area this has resulted in students altering the programmes so that they can enter Food Technology courses at University.
Benefits for students experiencing Carol's involvement are the chance to have a real world experience - Diana gives students the chance to consult another resource person other than the teacher. Both Diana and Carol believe it improves the Technological Practice.
Diana says it benefits the students to have a different point of view as Carol puts another slant on activities with her expertise and this adds to the overall programme.
There are no relevant resources available for NZ Food Technology so Carol has filled a huge gap. A good adviser in a non confrontational way, Carol is available when I need to ask questions. It has been a valuable professional development exercise.
- The unit could have been more formally planned before starting.
- I wanted to enthuse and motivate the students to all feel part of the process in the Technological Practice that developed - I feel this was achieved even with a new student coming in half way through. The Technological Practice was a key ingredient.
- Practical work was most important as it is Year 10 and students want to cook and eat and have fun. However, they did learn some things on the way - importance of measuring, creaming etc.
- Time was ever against us in getting through the practice in time allowed. Corners were cut, less writing, more discussion and oral decision making.
- Often rushed to be able to remind students to do planning, reusing, reflecting and reviewing which was one of my aims for students to practice.
- Sensory Testing always went well once students knew what to do and to set it up.
- Class worked very well together and came up with good decisions based on key factors, the brief and constraints of time and resources. All students were involved and included.
- Final Outcome was pretty good. Cookies were fairly uniform - all were labeled and packaged and groups helped to set up production, packaging, labeling, and the stall. They all were rostered on for a selling time at the stall with one or two responsible for the money. Again I was away on the last day of term and the class managed it all without me!
Changes to make:
- Decide on specific teaching points and do them;
- Encourage, plan, review, reflect, revise;
- Allow time to develop Production Process to a stage that shows good class understanding.
Overall, it was a fun, worthwhile unit that anyone could adapt!
