Outcomes
Student Reflections:
"It was more fun than expected, more hands on stuff than just food."
"I quickly appreciated that it was an academic subject."
"It wasn't easier than other subjects, but more fun; you get involved more."
"I enjoyed the skills stuff, the interaction with the focus group and the feeling of reality."
In 2005, the designs of four students' were chosen by Hillcrest School for their packets of chocolates, each containing four white and four dark chocolates.
In 2004, students were rewarded with more than satisfaction at production of an excellent chocolate - the project won $2,000 for the school in the Transpower Neighbourhood Engineers Awards.
Diana Eagle:
"In that first year when I was marking as a Level 1 assessor and the unit was used as a test case, the comment was "it's only a chocolate." The idea that a food product isn't a complicated thing - the consumability of food makes it seem that there isn't much to it. People now realise that there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes before you can manufacture a food product."
Involvement in Beacon Practice in 2005 has allowed Diana time to write up the unit in detail, and subsequently to present it in a workshop at the 2005 Technology Education New Zealand (TENZ) Conference and share resources with participants.
This resource material shows that it's not hard to set up this type of unit and that there's a variety of things that can be done with the context - from Primary school to Year 13. It enables teachers to go into it in as much depth as they feel comfortable with and introduces interaction with a client; if done at Primary level the major stakeholder could be Mum, Dad or a friend.
Diana Eagle:
"I used to have Year 11 students asking 'What are we doing today?' Now I'm asking that question and they'll say, 'I'm doing this… or that…'. There's been a huge shift over these years; they're not so focused on themselves, because they know the reality is that they're producing for somebody else."
Building a relationship with Carol helped Dianna forge links with a well established New Zealand company to such an extent that their food technologists have been her scholarship students' clients for the last two years. It also allowed her to make contacts within Massey University and the dairy industry. She feels that these all provide the high level of technological knowledge that a teacher may be lacking, introducing things such as ethical considerations and testing procedures appropriate for their project and practice.
Christine Law:
Nothing really needed to be changed from the Tararua end. We would perhaps do a little more preparation with our students in terms of how to answer the prepared questions for the focus group activity - particularly the little ones, who loved being involved in the process.
Carol has noticed that the Year 11 students are now more confident in their technological practice - having done it since Year 9 - and that over five years the school has developed a better understanding and better teaching of technological practice. She is able to talk to the class about a lot more because of the level they're at compared with that first class.
