Faculty Directions, Fall 2003 - Food Science is Cookin' with Multimedia and Laptop Technology

Marge Condrasky and John McGregor
Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition

Food science and human nutrition Profs. Johnny McGregor and Marge Condrasky are dishing up engaging and effective multimedia assignments for their students. In a Maymester faculty development workshop sponsored by the ETS/OTEI Laptop Faculty Development Program, McGregor and Condrasky explained that the food industry requires expertise in presenting food visually-physically and digitally. Multimedia and laptop technology now available to them and their students is making a difference in how they teach and learn.

In McGregor's spring 2002 FDSC 102 Perspectives in Food & Nutrition Sciences course, the students worked in teams to create an effective tool for communicating sound eating habits to the public. The project required students to:

• Use sound scientific evidence to deconstruct the food guide pyramid
• Create an original concept for communicating proper eating habits
• Create and prepare a full course meal that represented their new concept
• Describe three food science principles that were applied during the preparation of their meal
• Effectively communicate their project results through written, digital, visual and oral communication techniques.

After creating their new food guide concept, students worked in the culinary lab to prepare recipes that illustrated their guide to healthy eating. By using digital photography, they were able to learn about virtual presentation of food and to consider ways of changing the physical presentation to improve the virtual presentation.

The students then presented their results to the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition. Each team provided a short paper and graphics that were posted to MyCLE, as well as an oral explanation and three-dimensional representation of the food guide.

In Maymester, Condrasky built upon the teaching and learning experience of McGregor by teaching the same students in a new pilot course, "Culinary Applications." The use of laptops made possible better communication and the use of culinary/business computer applications. The Maymester students were assigned a recipe to develop, test, and submit to the Greenville News Lifesyle Editor. Laptop technology was incorporated in the foods lab setting for convenience, accuracy and to conduct the nutrition analysis of the recipes. She also required students to create a new product, conduct their research online and present their product with a digital component.

Condrasky and her students made a whirlwind trip to Chicago to visit food science professionals in their workplace. Students were able to see firsthand the importance of multimedia in the food industry.

Condrasky's students prepared a meal for the faculty who attended the Maymester faculty development workshop and then stayed to join the discussion about their experience in the two courses. Learning to use multimedia technology is important to the successful careers of food science students, and laptops provide a new dimension to culinary product work and skills development.

These two projects provide a foundation of experience from which to move forward in culinary sciences at Clemson University. McGregor and Condrasky are currently developing enhancements to these two assignments and new lessons on the dining atmosphere and experience that will also make use of multimedia and laptop technology.