Big Bikkie
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
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