Techlink :: Classroom Practice

Julia Gosley
The Technology Centre, Monrad Intermediate School
Palmerston North

Introduction
This unit was developed at the technology centre attached to Monrad Intermediate School. The centre caters for 11 rural schools on the outskirts of Palmerston North and two private city schools. There are a range of deciles and the students are from year 7. The students are taken by bus to the technology centre once a week for a two-hour session and their programme includes a 10 week block on Food Technology. There are two classrooms, one for Hard Materials and Electronics and the other Food, Soft Materials, and Biotech.

Year Group
Year 7

Context/Setting
The "Hot Bread Snack" unit was created because a number of students in the full day programmes bring food to be heated for lunch. The hot food was mostly pies so we looked at what the other possibilities could be and from that the concept of the unit was formed.

The quick meal-snack idea enabled the students to create a variety of products quickly which seemed to appeal. Most students enjoyed developing their product ideas and in their evaluations said that making their choices for food combinations and creating their own recipe was what they liked the most.

Planning part one

Based on Food Technology, the unit sets out the pathway for the students to develop a "Hot Bread Snack" using a selection of ingredients, which meet criteria set by the students and evaluated against their written specifications.

Resources available:

Access to:

The food laboratory;
Existing recipes;
Fonterra Research Centre;
Ingredients: a range of products suitable for the exercise

Unit Outline

Learning Experience	Gateways	Learning Outcomes	Criteria	Assessment Srategies
Session One (approximately two hours)
Introduce the unit – provide students with an overview of the unit so that they can see where individual tasks within the unit fit. Fonterra Research Centre provided the steps which should be followed for the product development. Skill Development – Manufacture of a "Hot Bread Snack" using sliced bread and a range of foods to choose from eg spaghetti, creamed corn, cheese, onion, tomato, relish, baked beans, vegemite, tomato, crushed pineapple, gherkin. Students asked to create a snack which must look good and taste good. During the sampling time build a work bank describing the taste, texture, appearance and odour of the snacks. Food hygiene practices built into practical sessions.	Gateway No.1 Skill Links to Gateway Nos 2, 3, 4	Learning Outcome One Students can: Describe the characteristics of a food product Links to AOs 1, 2, and 8	Criteria Product is described in terms of taste, appearance, texture, odour	Assessment Strategies Word bank charts
Disassembly of existing "Hot Bread Snacks" Students take apart/research commercially available products eg herb breads, hot chicken roll, hot dog, mini pizzas, Mexican enchiladas, curry rolls, mini quiches. Using word banks analyse taste, appearance etc. Look at serving portions, ingredients used, how it is made, determine group (people) it is targeted at.	Gateway No.2 Skill Links to Gateway Nos 1, 3, 4	Learning Outcome Two Students can: Analyse a food product Links to AOs 1, 2, and 8	Criteria Products are described in terms of target group ingredients, size recommenced, serving proportion, appearance, taste, texture, smell	Assessment Strategies Product analysis chart

Session Two (two hours)
Using the word banks and knowledge gained from the product analyse and with teacher write a brief (including specifications) for one of the snacks made from an existing recipe in this session. Submarines/potato savouries. Use star diagram to rank preferences for flavour, appearance etc. Knowledge Development Health Issues: Discuss "health issue" associated with food snacks for young children, teenagers and adults.Look at recommended food intakes for each group Contacted a local dietician for up to date information and guidance for this.	Gateway No.3 Skill Links toGateway Nos 1, 2, 4	Learning Outcome Three Students can: Write brief that described an existing product Links to AOs 1, 2, and 8	Criteria Brief specifications which allow the product to be made to the quality present in the existing product	Assessment Strategies Brief chart

Planning part two

Learning Experience

Gateways

Learning Outcomes

Criteria

Assessment Srategies

Session 3, 4, 5 (approximately six hours)

Display of "Hot Bread Snacks" food products/ideas
Identify a target group for which a "Hot Bread Snack" will be developed
Identify their preferences in terms of taste, texture, appearance, and health requirements
Carry out survey to find this information
Write an initial brief with specifications to satisfy the target group
Record processes followed (including changes to ingredients)

After trialling ingredients and processes to refine specifications, develop final brief for snack product. Evaluate against brief specifications using a star diagram to determine success of final product

Class undertakes sensory evaluation of developed snacks to identify the one that is preferred for multiple unit manufacture by the class using a production system.

Students work in pairs – 12 snacks developed. In each group of four, one is chosen as the preferred snack according to its appearance, health requirement, easy handling, overall liking.

A panel of six chosen to judge the best snack in the class. Results added – averaged and graphed to show results.

Gateway No.4

Technical Practice Links to Gateway 1, 2, 3

Gateway No.5
Technical PracticeLinks to Gateway Nos 1, 2, 3, 4

Learning Outcome Four
Students can:
Write a brief to develop a "Hot Bread Snack"

Links to AOs 1, 2, 8, 6a, b, c, d, 7

Learning Outcome Five
Students can evaluate a final product against specified specifications

Links to AOs 1, 3, 4, 5, 6a, b, c, d, 7

Criteria

Brief includes a conceptual statement specifications

Criteria

Students evaluation shows compliance of the final product against specifications and any faults.

Suggestions to eliminate faults

Assessment Strategies
Brief chart and conclusions

Assessment Strategies
Completion of product evaluation chart

Session 6 (two hours)

Multiple – Unit Production

Review the specifications for the selected "Hot Bread Snack." Class determined specifications for the production system.

Advertising was carried out at their school. Posters designed in class.

Orders were taken by the students whose snack was chosen as the one to mass-produce.

Students established process for multiple unit production of the snack.

They identified specific tasks within the production system and allocated personnel to perform these tasks.

Quality control checks were put in place to ensure that the produced snacks met required specifications.

Students used system they were familiar with at school – checked orders equaled money collected and orders against snacks produced ensuring the correct quantities were made.

snacks

> Pop-up link 337

> Pop-up link 348

First snacks made- Word bank developed from tasting these.

Delivery

A photo of examples of the first snacks produced, and samples of the word bank built up describing the taste, texture, appearance and odour of the initial products created.
Food Product Analysis: the following is a copy of the form used with a student's comments

Food Product Analysis

Taking apart (disassembling) a food product to get design information

How does it look?

It looks very appealing
It's red yellow green bumpy
It's beautiful

How does it taste?

Herbs, cheesy, tomato paste, meaty (ham), pineappley, doe

Texture – what words describe the texture or mouthfeel?
Crunchy
Crispy
Soft
Hard
Lumpy
Creamytop

Other useful information
Tells us
How to store it; and it tells us
How to heat the pizza

What ideas does it give you for food product design?
I would keep that cheese on and that cheese goes with the Tomatoe Paste,
Nothing really spoilt it

Survey and results from class

Star diagram

Fruit snack

Butterfly snack

Bagel snack

3. Carry out a survey to find out people's preferences in terms of taste, texture, appearance, and health requirements: Some of the students examples are shown here and overall class results are scanned in alongside:

Ingredients	Yes	No
Lettuce Spagetti Cream corn Bake bean Mushroom Tomato Frankfurter Cheese Eggs Tomato relish Green peppers Bacon Ham Vegemite Cucumbers/pickles Pineapple Salami	* * ** * * *** *	+ + + +++ + + + +++ + ++ + + ++ ++
What four foods would you put together out of the above? Spaghetti, lettuce, salami, cheese Spaghetti, frankfurter, cheese, bacon
Do you like foods flavoured with? Onion Garlic Pizza herb Curry Salt Pepper	* * *	+++ + +++
On which types of bread? Rolls, Panini, Tortilla, White bread, Wholemeal

4. Examples of Product Development – Designing a Hot Bread Snack – to incorporate:

Foods to flavour and quantities;
Type of bread to use as the base;
Draw your snack and label;
What changes would you make?
Star Diagram: used to describe and compare the appearance and tastes of food;
Conclusion.

5. Food Product Specification /Final Brief and Flow Chart for procedure of making the "Hot Bread Snack".

6. A panel of six chosen to judge the best snack in the class. Results were added, averaged and graphed to show results of the final products.

Some further results:

The fruit snack was a negotiated outcome. The students justified moving away from the bread base by showing that it still fitted the criteria the class chose for the most important attributes particularly the health aspect. They began with setting the fruit in a commercial jelly then changed to using the juice from the oranges set with gelatine. This lowered the sugar content and there was less waste.
The butterfly snack was developed for children's parties.
The student made his own bread for the Bagel style lunch time snack. There was no commercially made product that suited his requirements. Bagels were not the right size or texture.

Outcome

Product Evaluation Chart
Please explain how your solution met the specifications of the brief for multiple-unit production under the headings below.
If it didn't – explain or justify why it didn't.

How did your "Hot Bread Snack" meet the requirements of your brief?

Our snack was nice but a bit too garlicky from too much garlic salt.
It met our requirements.
It was just right. It had all of the required tastes and was filling enough for a substantial snack. I found that it was easy to eat and looked very appealing. All of the ingredients went together well and I am very pleased with the end product.

Is there anything you feel you could have done better?

Not as much garlic salt.
To have bigger oranges to fit more fruit in.
I could have made it slightly less fatty by using ham instead of bacon.

Overall Unit Evaluation
Do you think you were successful in this unit?

Yes because...

It was filling and nice to eat
Our snack was healthy and it was the best snack overall

No because...
1. There was too much garlic

Did you enjoy this unit?

Yes because...

It was fun to design our own snack instead of one we were given
It gave us a chance to create our own food

Julia's Comments
I find the set up of the room being an old style Home Economic room difficult for students to record results as they carry out their practical work, can be messy. The students enjoyed the taste testing of each others products and became very good at giving constructive ideas for product development. I would like a quiet area with taste testing results as students tend to be very expressive about the flavours they are experiencing. A few students didn't like the repetition needed to develop their product idea. They found it boring making the same thing. However, these students were often not putting much effort into changing their product.

I think the unit of work gave students a good grounding in the procedure to follow for product development and I feel I was still able to cover a variety of preparation and cooking techniques giving practical knowledge for future units of work.

The expectation from students when they come to the centre is that it is a very practical session so I have to be careful and not turn them off Food Technology by expecting them to do too much written work. I have found filling in boxes or charts and working in groups seems to work well.

I have since met with Charlie Towler and now that he has a fuller understanding of my need for classroom work he is more than happy to help out so there will be a much closer link next year where he will probably come in and assist the students in their research.