Food Science Education Research........Journal of

Food ScienceEDUCATION••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Training Teachers to Use Foodto Teach Science

Barbara Schaich-Rogers

ABSTRACT: In January 2006, every sciencedepartment chair in U.S. public, private, andparochial high schools received information on foodscience, including a DVD, poster, and experimentguide developed by the Institute of FoodTechnologists (IFT), IFT Foundation, and DiscoveryEducation. To promote the experiments and toencourage implementation of the program’scomponents in secondary schools, the IFT K-12Career Guidance Committee presented a teachertraining session at the national IFT Annual Meeting+ Food EXPO� in Orlando, Florida, on Monday,June 26, 2006. Twenty Orlando-area scienceteachers were treated to 3 h of activities, duringwhich they performed and learned how to teach 3experiments from the areas of physics, chemistry,and biology, demonstrated by the committee. Inaddition, to extend the effects of the session beyondthe Orlando area, IFT member Food ScienceAmbassadors were invited to the training sessionso that they could become proficient indemonstrating the experiments, and to equip themwith the knowledge to host a training session intheir own geographical area in the future. FifteenFood Science Ambassadors attended the session.After lab time, K-12 Career Guidance Committeemembers and IFT Student Association (IFTSA)chapter presidents led small groups of teachers ontours of the EXPO floor to learn more about howscience is applied in the food industry.

IntroductionThe IFT K-12 Career Guidance committee (referred to as the committee)

sought to promote and support the multimedia food science kits developedthrough a partnership of the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), IFTFoundation, and Discovery Education (www.discoveryschool.com/foodscience,accessed Oct 23, 2006) which included a DVD, poster, and experiment guide(collectively referred to as the kit) received by high school science departmentchairs in January 2006. Although the experiments in the guide were designed tosatisfy specific National Science Education Standards, successful implementationrequires that teachers be comfortable performing the experiments. To facilitatethis, the committee piloted a training opportunity for teachers.

Teachers generally have limited funds for training and material, but trainingworkshops may be an effective way to familiarize secondary teachers with foodscience, IFT, and other food science experiments available on thewww.discoveryschool.com/food science Web site and encourage adoption ofthese experiments for secondary school science classes. Teacher involvement inIFT means more students will learn about food science before they enter college,which, over time, has the potential to significantly increase undergraduateenrollment in postsecondary food science programs.

Materials and MethodsThe IFT K-12 Career Guidance committee submitted a request for a teacher

training session, free of charge to the teachers, to be held at the IFT AnnualMeeting + Food Expo� to the IFT Executive Committee. The committee set theregistration for teachers at 50, and proposed room setups to accommodate 20 to30 “onlookers,” since the session would be open to the general IFT membershipattending the meeting.

On approval, the committee selected the following experiments from the kitfor inclusion in the workshop:(1) The Splat Test for Viscosity (physics)

Measuring viscosity of liquids and determining the proportional inverserelationship between liquid viscosity and size of the splat it makes on paper.

(2) Osmosis (biology)Study of osmotic pressure and semipermeable membrane by replicatingosmotic conditions within a cell placed in highly salted or sugared solution.

(3) The Heat of Solution is Cool (chemistry)Measuring temperature change of endo- and exothermic reactions bydissolving polyols and salts.

PromotionPostcards promoting the teacher training were distributed at the National

Science Teachers Association (NSTA) national conference in April 2006, andremaining postcards were mailed directly to Florida schools. A committee

MS 20065006 Accepted 10/30/2006. Author Schaich-Rogers is the Past Chair, IFT K-12 CareerGuidance Committee, 1200 Pond Road, Glencoe, MO 63038, U.S.A. (E-mail: bschaich18@yahoo.com)

C© 2007 Institute of Food Technologists Vol. 6, 2007—JOURNAL OF FOOD SCIENCE EDUCATION 17

JFSE: Journal of Food Science Education

member who is on the faculty of Florida A & M Univ. sent anemail announcement (see Figure 1) about the training session tothe Florida Assoc. of Science Teachers, and this was posted ontheir Web site. To maximize exposure, an announcement aboutthe training session was emailed to the science coordinator ofOrange County Public Schools, who emailed theannouncement to teachers in the entire county, which containsOrlando. The announcement directed teachers to view theexperiments online at www.discoveryschool.com/foodscience,if they were not already familiar with them.

IFT members who have opted to serve as a resource tointerested students, teachers, and counselors, termed FoodScience Ambassadors, were extended a special invitation toattend this session. Each Food Science Ambassador was maileda copy of the kit, and information on the training session wasprovided in an accompanying letter.

SuppliesSupply and equipment lists were compiled for the 3

experiments, and some committee members were able todonate supplies or equipment. Funding was then obtained fromBalchem Corporation and the Florida IFT section, and polyolswere donated by SPI Polyols. The remaining materials neededwere purchased on-line and shipped directly to Florida. An IFTmember at the Univ. of Florida agreed to receive the suppliesand equipment and transport them to Orlando for the

Figure 1—Teacher training invitationletter

conference. To avoid the possibility of damage to borrowedequipment during transport or use, and to eliminate the need for50 or more teachers to weigh many ingredients during the shorttraining sessions, ingredients and materials for the experimentswere premeasured at the Univ. of Florida prior to theconvention. This was accomplished by 2 professors and theirstudents, who also packaged all supplies and equipment intoboxes labeled by experiment for easy distribution at theconvention center, and then transported them to Orlando.Supplies were stored temporarily with a local IFT member untilthe session set up the afternoon prior to the training. Perishablesupplies were purchased on the morning of the training.

K-12 Career Guidance committee members set up theequipment and supplies for the 3 experiments in 3 differentconference rooms prior to the session to ensure that allequipment, supplies, and handouts were onsite and ready forthe session.

On Monday, June 26, registration began at 8:30 a.m. After abrief introduction, approximately 1 h was allotted for thedemonstration of each experiment. At noon, the groupreconvened to complete evaluation forms (Table 1) and smallgroups of teachers were assembled to be escorted by acommittee member, IFTSA chapter president, or Food ScienceAmbassador to the EXPO. The EXPO tours gave teachers anoverall view of the industrial applications and resourcesavailable and ended their day with some fun. Escorts started the

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Training teachers to use food to teach science . . .

Table 1—Teaching science with food workshop evaluation results (19 total)

1. How did you learn about this workshop?-Email (7) – email to district office, email to Orange County Public schools-IFT Web site (2)—one is former IFT member-Colleague (2)—from a colleague who received a postcard-NSTA Web site (1)-Dr. Ron Schmidt (1)-Orlando Science Teachers Association (1)-Postcard sent to school (1)-Department head at our school (1)-Resource specialist at the District office (1)-Teacher at Orange County Public Schools (1)-Orange County Public Schools science liaison (1)

2. Please rate your enrollment experience.

3. Do you have any suggestions to ease the enrollment procedure?4. Please rate the experimental sessions that you attended.

5. Following the workshop, how comfortable do you feel performing and teaching these experiments on your own in your classroom?

6. Which experiment(s) if any do you plan to use in your classroom next year?

7. How helpful do you feel the written material received will be?

8. Do you have any suggestions to improve the workshop to increase your comfort/knowledge level with these experiments?-Allow for more time with experiments (2)-Add more/different experiments in the future-Provide copies of additional materials (data charts)-Provide a little more information on how to connect to food science-Osmosis—Use another material other than dialysis bag; need easier containers for test-Splat test—Design an easier procedure, maybe slightly less messy

9. What type of additional resources would you need to successfully implement these experiments into your curriculum?-Polyols-Money-Materials-More prep time-Supplier list for supplies, esp. polyols/dialysis tubing (4)-Where to get materials for labs-Follow-up worksheets for students; lab sheets to copy and hand out that are easy to alter if necessary

10. Had you seen the “The science and scientists behind the food” kit before today?

11. Had you visited the IFT/Discovery Project Web site (http://discoveryschool.com/foodscience) before today?

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JFSE: Journal of Food Science Education

Table 1—Continued

12. Do you plan to visit the Discovery Web site in the future?

13. Are there any experiments related to Food Science that you currently perform in your classroom? If so, can you briefly describe it?Can someone from IFT contact you regarding this experiment?

-Gatorade/Sports Drinks = ions/pH-pH of various foods and medicines-Chromatography experiments—with M&M’s-Making ice cream—the flow of energy-Cooking experiments, ex. baking cookies with butter, shortening, vegetable oil, etc. to see the effects of various fats on the recipe-Conservation of mass—amount of water in popcorn-Test for nutrients in foods-Insulating qualities of lipids-Moldy bread/oranges-Test Koch’s postulates—From Rice University workshop—use decalcified raw egg and a variety of liquids/solutions with different

viscosities to show osmosis/diffusion-Osmosis—with potato slices and dialysis tubing; with celery sticks and colored water-Gums experiment

14. Do you plan to contact Food Science Ambassador from IFT for further assistance?

15. Any additional comments on the workshop-Good presenters-This was fun and easy—I had a great time-Really enjoyed the hands-on activities-Start a teacher membership!-The experiments were well done—I really liked that they used simple materials-Thank you (2)-The information here is great-Very interesting-The labs were great—this will help the students understand the science-Great—I loved it!-I really enjoyed it-I have things I can implement this year-Heat of Solution—enjoyed this, many variations-Splat Test—lots of fun!

16. What subject(s) do you teach?-6th Grade Life Science-Integrated Science-Science electives-Science-All sciences-General Science (biology, chemistry, physics) (2)-Chemistry (7)-Physics (1)-Biology (6)-Supervise teachers

groups on their exploration of the EXPO, but then left teacherswith time to tour on their own.

ConclusionsLast minute cancellations resulting in only 20 teacher

attendees compared to the original 37 registrantsadvantageously benefited participants as the session format wasmodified to allow participation in all 3 training sessions, ratherthan just 2, as was originally planned.

Responses to the survey (Table 1) indicated that the workshopwas successful in preparing teachers and encouraging adoptionof the experiments in high school classes. Nineteen attendeescompleted surveys and all rated the enrollment experience aseasy. Most learned about the workshop from the email sentdirectly to the district office of the Orange County PublicSchools rather than from other announcements. Most teachers

found the experiments interesting and useful. With the exceptionof 1 response for 1 experiment, attendees rated them as good orexcellent and felt very or somewhat comfortable performing andteaching the experiments after the training. Nine teachers (plusone giving the experiment to a biology colleague) plan to usethe “Osmosis” experiment in their classes next year; 14 will usethe “Heat of Solution is Cool” and 7 will use the “Splat Test.”This division is sensible since most of the teachers taughtbiology and/or chemistry. Two teachers indicated they wouldnot be comfortable teaching the Splat Test, though reasons werenot given for their rating. The committee presenter for the SplatTest acknowledged that some materials used in the experiment(molasses, chocolate syrup, corn syrup, and honey) did not givegood results, and suggested modified procedures for generatingstandard curves to identify the viscosity of the unknowns.

The written material provided for all the experiments wasrated as very helpful. Suggestions for improvement include

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Training teachers to use food to teach science . . .

allowing more time with the experiments and addingsupplementary materials (e.g., data charts), information betterconnecting the experiments to food science, and differentexperiments in future sessions. To improve the teachingtechniques, participants suggested using easier-to-handlecontainers, replacements for dialysis bags for the Osmosisexperiment, and an easier, less messy procedure for the SplatTest. Teachers also indicated additional resources would beneeded to successfully implement the experiments in theirclassrooms, including money, materials, more prep time, labsheets and follow-up worksheets to copy and hand out tostudents, and supplier or source lists for materials for the labs.

The workshop also appeared to be successful in increasingawareness about food science and food science resources. Onlytwo teachers had seen the multimedia kit and only seven hadvisited the IFT/IFT Foundation/Discovery Education project Website (www.discoveryschool.com/foodscience) before theworkshop. However, all 19 survey respondents plan to visit theWeb site in the future and 9 definitely plan to contact an IFTFood Science Ambassador for further assistance. Eightresponded “Maybe” to the question: “Would you contact anAmbassador?” That so few teachers were familiar with theDiscovery Project experiments and packets before the meetingis of great concern and indicates a clear need for increased andimproved communication and advertisement about thesematerials. The extent to which this lack of familiarity with theIFT/IFT Foundation/Discovery Education materials andresources extends to IFT members and to secondary teachers ingeneral needs to be determined in surveys at IFT and NSTAevents. Clearly, more strategic and effective “public relations”are needed.

Two additional points should be noted. The sciencedisciplines represented by the teachers were predominantlychemistry and biology. This is important to consider for thedevelopment of new experiments and future training sessions.The last issue is cost. Material costs for conducting this initialTraining workshops for up to 50 teachers exceeded $1,000since IFT began with no materials and provided everything for50 teachers to conduct 3 different experiments. Also, when thesessions are presented in hotels or convention centers inconjunction with professional meetings, audiovisual chargessignificantly increase the costs. These costs need to beanticipated and included when developing budgets andsoliciting meeting support. Planning and organization is critical,and attention to details is important for any individual or groupconsidering sponsoring a training event in their area, since theequipment and supplies are many in number and considerablein cost if more than 1 experiment is taught at a training session.For teachers conducting experiments in the classroom, the costsof materials (if any) would be significantly reduced.

The pilot teacher training session for the IFT/IFTFoundation/Discovery Education experiments at the 2006 IFTAnnual Meeting demonstrated the effectiveness of theexperiments and provided valuable feedback on theexperiments and training methods to the IFT K-12 CareerGuidance Committee; these types of activities need to becontinued via the K-12 Career Guidance Committee, the FoodScience Ambassadors, IFT regional sections, and other foodscientists. Future sessions should be refined and polished inpresentation, then taped and streamed into other presentationsfor use at NSTA, college-day presentations, or high schoolscience classes, making the investment to create the experimentsand other resources increasingly sound and far-reaching.

Close communication between those offering teacher trainingworkshops will be critical for refining the experimentsthemselves and workshop presentations, addressing weak pointsand guaranteeing future success with training andimplementation. Additionally, each session offers anopportunity to include teachers as an integral part of IFT.Teacher involvement in IFT means more students will learnabout food science before they enter college, which, over time,has the potential to significantly increase undergraduateenrollment in postsecondary food science programs. The K-12Career Guidance Committee, listening to secondary teachers, iscurrently collaborating with the Education Division to researchand recommend the most effective ways to encourage greaterinvolvement of secondary teachers in IFT. These trainingworkshops should work toward an expanding role for secondaryteachers with IFT and food science education.

Overall, the teacher training workshop in Orlando in June2006 achieved its goal of teaching 3 of the 6 experiments toOrlando-area science teachers and Food Science Ambassadors.The teacher responses indicated that the workshop substantiallyincreased the probability that they would implement theexperiments in their classroom. On the basis of the very positiveevaluations, we can hope that teacher enthusiasm and use ofthe experiments will spill over into their departments andencourage other science teachers to make use of these andother IFT food science experiments. The training session thuscan be viewed as a catalyst that, with time, continued contact,and hopefully a resource Web site, will motivate scienceteachers to implement the food science experiments, teach foodscience to a greater degree, motivate students to explore foodscience as a career, and become IFT members themselves.

Although this initial teacher training session was developedprimarily to increase implementation of the kit experiments bytraining high school teachers in the Orlando area, it also servedas a prototype or template for future training sessions conductedby the committee or by Food Science Ambassadors, and as atrial run to find any flaws in the experimental and instructionalprocesses. Thoughtful evaluation of the results of this trainingsession should lead to development of new and betterpresentation techniques that can reach more people moreeasily, including taping and streaming into PowerPoint andother types of presentations to be used at NSTA conferences, byFood Science Ambassadors, by local IFT sections, or byuniversity faculty.

AcknowledgmentsThe IFT K-12 Career Guidance Committee gratefully

acknowledges the financial support from the Florida IFT Sectionand the Balchem Corp. as well as product donations from SPIPolyols. The assistance of Drs. Ron Schmidt and Mitwe Musingoand their students is also appreciated for the receipt, packaging,transport, and setup of the training session materials. Drs. PeterBechtel, Richard Ludescher, and Ingolf Gruen are thanked fordemonstrating the experiments.

ReferenceIFT, IFT Foundation and Discovery Education. 2006. The science and scientists

behind the food. Available from: www.discoveryschool.com/foodscienceAccessed Oct 23, 2006.

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