Classroom & Laboratory Management

MANAGEMENT
Management is the key to successful nutrition and food science class  laboratory experiences.  Teaching will be more effective if students utilize wise time management and apply safe and sanitary work habits as part of the basic principles to be learned.  In addition, concepts taught in class can be applied practically and the food prepared will be more suitable for consumption.  The students will also better understand the nutritional concepts for the food they prepare.

SPECIAL NOTE
The information found in the NUTRITION AND FOOD SCIENCE - CLASSROOM & LABORATORY MANAGEMENT curriculum guide is supplemental material to be used if the teacher chooses.  It is recognized that many seasoned teachers will already have their management unit in place.  Every nutrition and foods course, however, must contain a management unit.  Most teachers use that unit as the first one in a course.

Suggestions, alternatives, and options are presented.  Some learning activities are appropriate for junior high school; others are better suited to high school.  Teachers should use this guide as a resource, picking and choosing what best fits into a particular lesson plan for a particular situation.  This guide is simply an attempt to bring together ideas and suggestions that have worked well for some teachers and to share them with other teachers.

UNIT RESOURCE MATERIALS
As a convenient teacher reference a TITLE LIST of the resource materials provided in this guide can be found at the beginning of each section.

READING ALERT SYMBOL **
The ** symbol periodically found at the top of some activity worksheets indicates that the learning activity must be handled in a special way for reading disadvantaged and/or language disadvantaged students.

Teachers should note that some students, who are low-level or non-readers, will be penalized unfairly if worksheets and lab sheets are given to them with the expectation that they can read and understand the materials.  It is important to make adjustments to accommodate these students. 

These disadvantaged students can easily be identified by the following, simple exercise:

1. Give student(s) a Family and Consumer Sciences text.
2. After the teacher chooses specific topics, ask the students to find the pages where the topics can be located.  They must use, without being told to do so, the table of contents and/or index to find the topics.
3. Have the students tell, in a couple of sentences, the substance of the teacher-chosen topic and identified paragraph.

NOTE TO TEACHER: PROTECT FRAGILE SELF-CONCEPTS DO NOT GRADE THE ABOVE EXERCISE.

FORMAT
This curriculum guide has been designed to be used by teachers in any nutrition and foods related course at the secondary level - 6th through 12th grades.

Two levels of classroom and laboratory units are included in this volume.  They are identifiable in each section by the color of the separation page.  Teachers should feel free to mix and match activities that best suit their programs.

LEVEL I - includes activities that may be more appropriate for junior high students (6-9th grades).

LEVEL II - includes activities that may be more appropriate for high school students (10-12th grades).