Big Bikkie

Introduction

In preparation for this Techlink unit Diana met with Carol Pound, Consultant Food Technologist. They tossed ideas around over a cup of coffee for the work case studied here. Diana and Carol planned several units all of which are included. Information about Cookie Time, the students' level of understanding, an opportunity that arose at school and available time led to this work. Together they develop a unit outline and Carol describes how a technologist would undertake this type of activity. Diana adapts this for her unit plan and makes links to the curriculum. She details how she intended to assess students' progress. Carol provided tools used by technologists including sensory forms and attribute tests, which were used by students as part of their practice. The case study is illustrated by samples of students' work. Diana has provided a brief outline of what actually happened during the unit and an evaluation including things she would do differently next time. Carol has provided an evaluation of her role in this work.

Background
Tararua College is situated in a rural service town and has a roll of 400 students. Students are predominantly Pakeha, 15% Māori, 1% Pacific Island and 1% Asian. The school is a decile 6. We are fortunate to have a new technology suite built in 2002 with very good facilities which, for the Food Technology students, foster hygienic work habits in a clean food-safe environment. Students are expected to follow HACCP expectations which Year 10 students developed earlier this year. Hairnets and aprons must be worn and no jerseys are essential hygiene and safety precautions observed in the kitchen work environment. There is also a design area which is used for class discussion, planning and sensory testing. The students are lovely! This class has been a joy to teach all year. They are responsive and responsible. The year started with a large intake that has whittled down to 21 due to students moving to other schools. There is only one boy who broke his leg last term so missed a large part of it.

Planning part one

The aim of this term's work was to give the Year 10 students the opportunity to experience technological practice to gain insight and learning ready to decide on their option choice for Year 11 either unit standards in Food and Nutrition or Achievement Standards in Technology (Food). To do this work as a unit with the whole class rather than individual projects was intentional not only for management of resources and time, but also to ensure learning was for all students so that each felt involved in the process as stakeholder representatives (focus group) of the school. As a group they made key decisions together, developing and evaluating the final solution as a class. The practical tasks were carried out in groups of 3-4 and/or in pairs.

Unit Plan

Planning part three

Delivery

Resources

• The food laboratory;
• Access to existing recipes;
• Food Technologist consultant: Carol Pound;
• Article from North & South magazine featuring "Cookie Time" business;
• Ingredients including a range of chocolate products bought mainly in bulk from Moore Wilson Food warehouse;
• Range of Chocolate Chip Cookie brand products: Cookie Time, Tucka Time, Griffins

Important Factors
It was important for me (Diana) to teach the students the following:

1. Skills in biscuit making: and we did a lot of this although by the end of the unit the students were tired of making the same or similar product for so long (9 weeks).
2. To use and review a Plan of Action - as a class group.
3. To develop testing methods especially attribute testing - they really enjoyed doing this and did it well.
4. To develop a production process. Time and circumstances changed the thoroughness of teaching this before putting it into practice but with Carol's help the students understood the need for quality assurance and sameness of product.

On the last day of term the "Spring Picnic" is held. Diana was asked if one of her classes wanted to do a sweet stall for the picnic. She initially said no but then had the brainwave that they could sell giant Chocolate Chippie Cookies - "OK" was the resounding answer all around.

This meant that we now had a real situation (opportunity) and a real time line to keep to, so it became a bit of a rushed job at the end to develop our production process and method. However, the students still used skills previously learnt including making a flow chart, using the HACCP plan, and working together as a group to produce package, label, and sell their products. Profit was in the negative but there is no price to put on the things the students learnt from a real experience competing against the café who just happened to lower their prices on "Cookie Time" cookies for that day!

Group Tasks

• A sign for stall organized in the art room - Kelly's group
• The Production flow chart on A2 paper for the class to follow - Emma T's group
• Designing the label on the computer - Renee's group
• Adjusting the recipe for the class to easily follow - Tyla and Kate
• Pictures arranged in order labeled and displayed to help in mass production of cookies - Laura and Jacqui
• Making the sticky labels for the cookies on the computer or by hand - Ashleigh and Kim
• Plan of action for the day of the stall made up and prepared on the computer - Natasha's group.

Recipes

Chocolate Chip Biscuits

Ingredients:
75 grams butter - melted
½ cup Chelsea white sugar
½ cup Chelsea brown sugar
1 large egg
1 cup flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ cup chocolate chips

Method:
Pheheat the oven to 180° C. Beat together the melted butter, sugars and egg. Sift flour and baking soda and add with the choc chips to the butter mixture. Stir until well combined. Place teaspoonfuls on an oven tray that has been greased or with baking paper. Leave room for biscuits to spread. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
1½ cups self raising flour
½ cup choc chips
¼ tsp salt
75 grams margarine
6 Tbsp brown sugar
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla essence

Method:
Cream margarine and sugar. Add egg and vanilla essence and beat well. Mix flour and salt gradually into the mixture. Add choc chips. Roll into balls place on tray and pushdown with fork. Bake at 160° for 10-15 minutes.

Toll House Cookie Bars

Ingredients:
1 cup butter
¾ cup white sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
½ tsp water
2 eggs
1½ cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups rolled oats
1 packet of chocolate chips

Method:
Cream butter and the sugars, beat together vanilla and water. Beat in the eggs and then add the flour, salt, and baking powder. Finally add the rolled oats and the chocolate chips.

Bake in a swiss roll tin for 12-15 minutes at 375°F (180°C). Remove from oven before completely done to have a moist, chewy bar.

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.

Brief Evaluation of the Unit

1. The unit could have been more formally planned before starting.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Time was ever against us in getting through the practice in time allowed. Corners were cut, less writing, more discussion and oral decision making.
5. 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.
6. Sensory Testing always went well once students knew what to do and to set it up.
7. 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.
8. 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!

Updating an existing unit of work to align with The New Zealand Curriculum (2007)

In these Curriculum Links pages, Diana Eagle revisits the Bikkie Time unit and develops a unit plan to align with The New Zealand Curriculum (2007), which she then annotates showing these links and comments on the process.

Download Curriculum Links document, including annotated example (PDF, 1.5Mb)

Background to original unit - Big Bikkies

This unit of work was first developed and used in 2003. The unit was never fully planned out into a formally written unit at any time. The basis of the unit was planned around an article about "Cookie Time" resourced from the North and South magazine. As the unit was underway the opportunity came up for the class to provide a food stall at "Spring Fever Week" - at that time, a new event in the school calendar.

Teacher experience

The teacher was new to teaching context specific Food Technology and the new NCEA achievement standards at Level One were being introduced that year. There was the opportunity to deliver this unit, due to assistance given by a consulting food technologist who was contracted to work on an NCEA trial unit with Year 12 (a Sixth Form Certificate class). The consultant was there to provide knowledge and skills to the teacher as much as the students.

Unit Aim

The aim of this unit was to give the Year 10 students shared experiences and understandings around what needs to be considered in the development of a biscuit outcome for multi-unit batch production as compared to just cooking a batch of biscuits. Students were exposed to new terminology in relation to production processes and quality control checks.

Teaching and learning focusses were:

• To develop skills in biscuit making.
• To develop skills in product analysis.
• To develop testing methods necessary to ensure quality assurance in biscuit making.
• To develop a production process suited to the class environment.
• To use case study material to inform and enhance technological practice.

To do this work as a unit with the whole class rather than individual projects was intentional, not only for management of resources and time, but also to ensure learning was for all students so that each felt involved in the process. As a group they made key decisions together, developing and evaluating the final outcome as a class. The practical tasks were carried out in groups of 3-4 and/or in pairs with the final multi-unit batch production a class effort.

At the end of this unit students were able to market and sell a big cookie product in the school environment although there was unexpected competition from the cafe manager, who lowered the price on the Cookie Time Big Cookie. For this project the class won the Trans Power Neighbourhood Engineers' Award in 2003.

Although this unit of work was never delivered again at this school the unit of work gave the teacher the much needed experience and confidence in delivering a technology programme with a focus on food production and processes. From this unit the teacher was able to make significant changes to the teaching programme at all levels over the next five years and develop a variety of resources to scaffold student learning.

The unit was case studied by Techlink to become one of the first case studies in the area of food. The unit sequence shown in this original case study was compiled from a reflective commentary of the learning activities rather a pre-determined written unit plan.

For more information on the original unit of work, see www.techlink.org.nz/Case-studies/Classroom-practice/archive/big-bikkie/index.htm

Updating the unit

With the availability of a new Technological Practice resource on Techlink called "Gluten Free cookies" there was an opportunity to update the existing Classroom Practice case study. This resource is based around the case study of the development of the new gluten free cookie developed by the "Cookie Time" company - it has been used within the updated unit of work as the main example of outside technological practice. This case study clearly aligns with all 3 Technology Strands.

For more information on this resource, see www.techlink.org.nz/Case-studies/Technological-practice/Food-and-Biological/Gluten-free-cookies/index.htm

The original Techlink unit was selected for use as a PPTA resource to reflect how the "front end" of the 2007 New Zealand Curriculum could align to an existing unit. This developed resource demonstrates the teacher's reflective thinking around how it already aligns with the new curriculum in relation to such things as the principles, values, key competencies and effective pedagogy as well as some mention of the strands of Technology. There are suggestions for modification and the first page of a revised unit planner highlighting the key foci for unit delivery of Learning Links to the "front end" of the curriculum.

For more detail on this resource, see www.ppta.org.nz/index.php/resources/curriculum-support/curric-resources/cat_view/147-curriculum-resources/163-learning-areas--subjects/167-technology

Final updated unit

The unit was then developed to its final version to align its delivery in the classroom to the 2007 New Zealand Curriculum. This alignment included the consideration of the foci already outlined above and the focus given to the Technology Learning Area to meet Achievement Objectives related to the 3 strands of Technology: Technological Practice, Technological Knowledge and Nature of Technology.

The opportunity was also taken to ensure area specific knowledge and skills in the area of food technology were incorporated into the unit with the support from the "Food Technology Toolbox resource developed in 2007 and now case studied on the Techlink website. The focus for suggested knowledge and skills was sourced from the toolbox at Years 9 and 10.

For more detail on the Food Technology Toolbox, see www.techlink.org.nz/Case-studies/Classroom-practice/Teaching-Practice/cp807-food-technology-toolbox/index.htm

For teachers in the area of food this is a useful unit of work to encourage group and team work as a class or groups. It has a focus on developing a group/class outcome with specific focus on outcome development for multi-unit batch production. It could include a variety of negotiated outcomes such as packaging and labelling for the product as well as promotion and marketing strategies dependent on the intended use. The unit of work would be enhanced by an authentic need/opportunity such as a sales table at the school gala or a fundraiser product for a school team or group.

Suggested approaches to unit delivery

Previous student and teacher experiences will probably dictate the focus for the delivery of this unit; however, as there are specific learning outcomes related to all three strands within the learning area of Technology there are a variety of approaches to the delivery of this unit.

• Delivering the unit as is - with a variety of learning experiences encompassing all three strands with the focus of class/team work to deliver a multi-unit batch produced outcome within a 10-week time frame.
  
• Determining a specific teaching emphasis (and strand/s focus) to sit inside a teaching programme such as:
• Developing student skills in producing quality products with a class wide aim for "product sameness".
• Foster sound technological practice by developing a biscuit outcome for a specific person (stakeholder).
• Focus on the development of a biscuit for health reasons like the gluten free cookie, for example, biscuits lower in fat and sugar.
• Developing knowledge and skills in developing desirable key attributes for an outcome to match the same attributes found in an existing product - a "Me Too" product, for example, the gluten free cookie or another Cookie Time product.
• Developing strategies (literacy/differentiation/extension for G&T) for students to access knowledge and skills from the case study material; and in turn focus on ways to ensure students can then demonstrate understanding by application to their own practice, for example, developing a gluten free outcome.
• Focusing on the development of knowledge and skills and understanding of multi-unit batch production from a teacher/class selected recipe.This selected focus could be delivered in smaller time frames and support other parts of a teaching programme and student practice. There are some suggested extension activities to support these different foci.
• This unit could be applied to other food products/contexts such as:
• The Beef and Lamb Competition - the class winner or class selected burger is produced using multi-unit batch production for prepaid orders for a lunch - staff and or students.
• Food-related fundraisers
• Frozen meals
• Other biscuit types or baking products.
  
• This unit could be used as an opportunity to participate in:
• Young Enterprise Awards
• Massey Food Challenge
• Crest Awards

Click to enlarge image, or download Curriculum Links document (PDF, 1.5Mb