Creating Scenario-Based Adventures & Using Career Exploration Videos to Improve Food Science Education

Streamed Session

Brief Abstract

The food manufacturing industry faces labor shortages, further exacerbated by the pandemic.  The Introduction to Food Science course offered by North Carolina State University’s Department of Food, Bioprocessing, and Nutrition Sciences aims to provide undergraduate students with an understanding of food science and career options in the food industry.

Presenters

Lead Presenter: Jessica White, North Carolina State University

Jessica is a Senior Instructional Designer working with Digital Education and Learning Technology Applications (DELTA) and the Department of Food, Bioprocessing, and Nutrition Sciences (FBNS) at NC State University. In both departments, she provides instructional design and project management knowledge to create and provide solutions to instructional challenges. She works with faculty members and the new media team at DELTA to design, develop, and evaluate innovative online and face-to-face courses. In FBNS, she manages the Distance Education (DE) Grants & Instructional Design Assistance Program that she established in Fall 2017. This program supports departmental faculty members who desire to create or revise existing courses into blended, hybrid, flipped, or fully online courses. Her work in FBNS creates opportunities to collaborate with faculty, undergraduate and graduate students, and the distance education coordinator to develop engaging and informative courses. Before joining DELTA, Jessica taught at a private college for several years before working for a non-profit organization and as a government contractor. In her prior roles, she developed a multitude of courses, taught adults various business-related topics such as professional development, business communications, and designed training programs. Jessica holds an Ed.S. in Instructional Design and Technology and a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership. She also teaches as an adjunct Teaching Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership, Policy, and Human Development at NC State University.

Extended Abstract

Until 2021, the fall and spring course sections of the 200-level Introduction to Food Science course utilized traditional classroom instruction and assessment tools such as in-person and flipped lectures, videos, and quizzes.  During 2021-2022, the faculty who teach this course during the fall, spring, and summer semesters desired to create a new version of the course based on the flipped classroom approach.  The goal was to introduce students to fundamental concepts and theory and then have them engage in the active application of these concepts through face-to-face or online lab experience.  

 

We created three “Food Science Investigation (FSI)” interactive scenarios related to creating a toaster pastry (food chemistry), conducting a soup recall (food engineering), and making a bad lunch (food microbiology).  These FSI scenarios engaged students’ critical thinking through inquiry-guided activities while providing an online active learning approach that exposed students to the real-life possibility of experiment failure.  We also created and included three food science career videos of individuals working in various food science careers to increase inquiry-driven learning in the large 200-person hybrid and asynchronous courses. As an instructional designer, I was interested in determining whether or not the addition of the scenarios and videos increased students’ knowledge and interest regarding food science.  The overall research project evaluated the efficacy of interactive learning tools to both engage students in the course materials and pique their interest in food science careers.  

 

The fall semester (2022) study results clearly demonstrated the level of knowledge about food science increased from the beginning of the course for most students, including topics like career opportunities in the food industry, food product marketing, sensory characteristics, interactions between ingredients in food systems, and chemical, microbiological, and engineering principles used in food preservation and processing. Students also indicated they have a better understanding of governmental regulations on food labeling and food industry marketing as well as an understanding of the global food market compared to the US market. More than half of the students say they strengthened their critical thinking and communication skills throughout the course and around three-fourths of students confirmed they could describe the diversity of career opportunities in the food industry after the course. The interactive food safety investigations and career videos are successful teaching tools to increase student engagement and further fuel student interest in food science careers.  We’ve just concluded our spring semester (2023), but we collected data and will analyze it over the summer to compare the two semesters to see if the scenarios and videos actually worked.  We plan to share this data in Fall 2023.