Journal of Food Science Education最新文献

The number of online courses offered by universities in America continues to increase. Due to limited direct interactions with students, these courses can struggle to promote student engagement. Food science is uniquely situated for implementation of hands-on project-based learning opportunities since basic experiments can be performed in a kitchen with minimal supplies and equipment. The purpose of this teaching and learning tip is to share materials designed for an asynchronous online course, instructional fermentation vignettes, and the Home Fermented Foods Project assignment, which tasks students with creating two fermented foods with two accompanying documents explaining the science of each employed steps. Students are engaged with the projects while connecting the lecture material to familiar products that they create such as sauerkraut, yogurt, and bread. Overall, based on student evaluations and our interactions with the students, our implementation of this project has been positive. Downloadable handouts containing assignment details are available as Supporting Information.

Well, the new Fall 2020 semester is off and running, figuratively and literally speaking. I am involved in teaching three courses, all of which I am teaching online for the first time. I have never been so busy trying to get the next lecture ready, the next assignment posted, the next e-mail responded to, the next… you get my drift. Some of you may be feeling the same way as I am – too much to do and not enough time to do it. So, what I thought I would do is share some goals and ideas that are keeping me, and hopefully my students, grounded, growing, and going strong and some of my early online observations that are causing me to pause, ponder, and make adjustments.

How would you finish this sentence, “When life gets challenging, I…”? It is important to know what keeps you going when life gets difficult. Here are three goals and ideas that help me. Oh and I love a good positive quote, too – from the silly, like “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade” (Dale Carnegie) to the funny, like “When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on” (Franklin D. Roosevelt) to the more serious, like “Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful” (Joshua J. Marine) and “We must meet the challenge rather than wish it were not before us” (William J. Brennan, Jr.).

There have already been a number of things that have given me pause this semester, and we are only a few weeks into the semester. Here are just of few of the highlights. I am sure there are many more to come!

One last thought, but certainly not the least – a key part of reaching our students is making sure our students know that we care about them, especially during this super stressful and uncertain time. I am blessed to have a superstar teaching assistant this semester, Erin Davis (soon to be Dr. Erin Davis), who is my right-hand person in this regard. She is always thinking about how to help the students succeed, even if it means more work and time and effort on her part. I am grateful for her and grateful for all the teachers out there who are working extra hard to teach and reach their students during such a time as this.

How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where, and Why It Happens, Benedict Carey, 2014 Random House 9780812993882, 272 pages

Numerous books have been published on the science of learning, and How We Learn is in that collection. Written by Benedict Carey, a science reporter, this book covers how the brain collects, organizes, and retains information, and how these processes are key to determining what information we learn and how well we remember it.

Carey divides the book into four parts. The first part, on basic learning theory, covers how the biology of the brain plays into learning and how forgetting is actually an important part of learning. Imagine how difficult retrieval of information would be if you remembered everything you experienced with any of your senses! Forgetting weeds out the unimportant information, such as what happened on your routine commute to work. Understanding why the brain lets go of certain information and retains others helps you use the brain's natural mechanisms to remember the information you want to save.

The logical follow-up question is how do you make sure what is retained is what you want? This is covered in the second part of the book. Carey first looks at the effect of context on what is learned. For example, if the context makes the information important, it is more likely to be stored. Next, Carey covers the importance of spacing out study time, which strengthens the ability to recall information. By repeatedly requiring the brain to pull the information out of storage, the links to the information are strengthened and it is easier to remember it. Carey also discusses the importance of testing to remember information. “Testing” in this case means asking yourself questions related to the material you are trying to remember to see if you can answer them without help from prompts or notes. Rapid feedback is important in this testing: accurate information is retained better if corrections to inaccuracies are quickly identified and performed.

Now that we have strategies to remember lots of information, we need strategies to be able to apply it. Part of this application is problem-solving, which is covered in the third part of the book. The best techniques for problem-solving are generally counter-intuitive. How many of us and our students go all-in for problem solving, stubbornly plugging away until we come up with a workable solution? This works, sometimes, but it's not the most effective way to solve problems. Instead, quitting the problem-solving process temporarily, letting ideas percolate for a while, mulling them over and coming back after a rest, and working on something else while letting the problem sit are methods that let your brain work on the problem over time, sort through information and make connections between discrete bits of information. I was an unconscious adopter of this method during my undergrad studies in chemical engineering. There were

Numerous studies from psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience have generated substantial evidence suggesting that multitasking while doing schoolwork has a significant detrimental effect on student learning and performance. Despite this evidence, attending to multiple streams of information and entertainment while doing homework, writing a paper, studying, or even during class (face-to-face or online) has become common behavior among young people. Thus, the objective of this trends article is to discuss some of the latest research findings associated with distracted learning, including why students, and people in general, get distracted in the first place, and to share some effective approaches and ideas to help our students, and ourselves, get focused. Learning how to become indistractable is an essential and timeless skill for success in education, as well as many other facets of life.

The aim of this study was to identify factors that influence the academic success or failure of Food Science and Technology students at the University of León (Spain). A questionnaire of 68 questions was distributed among 185 students during the 2017 to 2018 academic year. Those students who were satisfied with passing exams, studied in the library, and/or faced personal problems showed low academic performance. In addition, some factors, such as studying Physics previously, attending class, and/or studying all the topics for the exams, were associated (P < 0.05) positively with the grade point average obtained. Academic performance of the students in the different years of study did not present significant differences (P ≥ 0.05). This study reinforces the need to introduce changes in the current University of León´s education program.

Automation is coming and will enable not only the ability to increase poultry processing line speeds, but also the collection of considerable “big data.” These data can be collected en masse, stored, analyzed, and used to improve food safety, quality, enhance traceability, and also be used for risk assessment. However, as this technology is implemented in the poultry industry, computer hackers will emerge to pose a clear and present danger to the poultry industry and the upcoming generation of professionals must be equipped with the knowledge to protect sensitive data. The objective of this study was to quantitate the current computer science (CS) competency, food science exposure and extracurricular activities, and familiarity with cybersecurity topics of students in food science and related fields. Students ranked their CS abilities, 1 through 5, with 1 being the lowest level of competence and 5 representing the highest level of confidence. To assess their knowledge of food safety-related sciences, participants were asked about their familiarity with the respective fields. The average student was familiar with common avenues of food safety exposure, such as television and the Internet. Students were less familiar with more advanced, and arguably important topics, such as botnet. Finally, the students ranked their familiarity with cybersecurity topics, 1 through 5, with 1 representing being not familiar at all and 5 representing extremely familiar. Therefore, to meet the future technological demands, specific course-work is required to improve prospective student CS and cybersecurity competency.

JFSE holds an annual video contest, Food Science in Action, where we invite food science students and professionals to make a short educational video around a specific theme. Submissions are judged by the Editorial Board, and accepted videos are posted to our library of educational videos aimed at K-12 students on ift.org and YouTube. Cash prizes are awarded for the top 3 videos. For more details and to view the videos, visit http://ift.org/foodscienceinaction.

This year's theme was “Serious Ink: Know What's on Your Food Label!” Submitters created a 1- to 5-minute educational video to improve consumers’ understanding of food and beverage package communications.

Congratulations to this year's first place winner, Nicholas F. Reitz for his video, “Natural Color Conundrum”!

Nick grew up in southern Illinois and attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for undergraduate and master's degrees in food science. His master's research investigated the effect of beet and cane sugar on the texture of egg-based foams. He is currently nearing completion of his Ph.D. in Food Science at the University of California, Davis, studying postharvest fruit physiology. During his Ph.D. research, he had the opportunity to work internationally on extension projects in mango handling and processing with the Methodist University College, Ghana. His career goal is to continue researching and teaching in Food Science.

On participating in the Food Science in Action contest, Nick says, “This contest was a great opportunity to research a topic, create education material, and improve my video production skills. I highly encourage anyone interested to participate next year.” Nick is also a finalist in the 2020 IFT Graduate Research Video Competition. More information on his research can be found in the upcoming virtual awards ceremony for that competition.

Screenshot from 1^st place video, “Natural Color Conundrum” by Nicholas Reitz

Congratulations also go out to the 2^nd and 3^rd place winners:

Second place: “Best if Used Before, Sell By, Use By—What's the Difference?” by Morgan Whitecotton, R&D Scientist at General Mills

Third place: “Understanding the New Nutrition Facts Label” by Meera Patel, Leila Shinn, Nick Hamdi, and Shatabdi Goon, from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Screenshot from 2^nd place video, “Best if Used Before, Sell By, Use By—What's the Difference?” by Morgan Whitecotton

Screenshot from 3^rd place video, “Understanding the New Nutrition Facts Label” by Meera Patel, Leila Shinn, Nick Hamdi, and Shatabdi Goon

At most institutions, food innovation courses do not highlight the role of community culture, a blind spot that otherwise could connect the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals. This study presents a unique approach to teaching food product innovation, incorporating community culture in ideation, prototyping, and storytelling. Through participatory action research, NUTR 435 Experimental Foods at Montana State University partnered with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes to teach culturally appropriate product innovation. The class visited the food system stakeholders at the Flathead Reservation and conducted focus groups to gather food memories, understand culinary practices, and recognize product preference of the tribal members. Based on the cultural experiences obtained from the community, the students created smoked trout prototypes and developed recommended recipes for using the smoked trout. The recommended recipes used Native ingredients to tell the tribes’ food stories. The students were affirmative on the importance of incorporating culture in food innovations in both the pre- and post-semester learning assessments. Yet, after the semester, the students’ attitude and knowledge on this topic became more positive and dynamic, focusing on empowering the community in story and identity telling. Future improvements include recommending a preparatory course in Native American food systems, collaborating with a tribal class, encouraging engagement with the tribal partners beyond the class, and implementing policies to guard the cultural property of the tribal communities. This study presents pilot results for food science educators to consider incorporating community culture in their instructions to address food system challenges.

Here we stand, about five months into the COVID-19 global pandemic, and we already have an opportunity to look back and see what we can learn to improve the future. The specific future that I am referring to is the Fall 2020 semester. As of right now, I am not sure if colleges and universities will be 100% online, as was the case after spring break 2020, but I would bet that a sizable number of courses will either be offered completely online or at least include some form of an online component (Chronicle Staff 2020). Therefore, it would behoove us to reflect on how we can improve the online experience we were required to rapidly develop and deliver to our students in Spring 2020, so that, ultimately, we can prepare our courses, ourselves, and our students for a better future – no matter what form of instruction we find ourselves needing to deliver in Fall 2020.

As the Spring 2020 semester was wrapping up, I was involved in a couple of Zoom meetings, the combination of which gave me pause. In the first Zoom meeting, a long-time professor was discussing how faculty members in his department were feeling pretty good about how they were able to successfully put the contents of their courses online in such a short period of time. In the second Zoom meeting, just a day later, I was listening to some students who were asked to share about how the transition to online learning went for them. The students first shared some positive features of their online learning experience, such as the opportunity to review recorded Zoom lectures; the convenience of online office hours; the helpfulness of weekly checklists sent out by their instructors; and the use, by some faculty, of breakout groups in Zoom. However, the students went on to also share a number of serious concerns with their experience, including feeling extremely disconnected from the instructor and other students in the class; feeling demotivated to attend or study for classes; having a few classes where only the PowerPoint slides were posted, but no further explanations or voice over lectures were provided; and lacking the technology needed in their new location to be successful. While pondering the juxtaposition between the faculty voice in the first Zoom meeting and the student voices in the second Zoom meeting, it dawned on me – putting content online is one thing, learning from that content is quite another. With only a moment's notice to transition their courses from face-to-face to online, faculty members, especially those who had never taught online before, were only thinking about one thing – how can I put my course content online? I can completely understand that frame of mind (Schmidt, 2020a). However, now that we have time to reflect, at least a little, it seems intuitive that we need to include in our newly created online courses much more than content – as espoused by Cheelan BoLinn, from the Center of Innovations in Teaching and Learning on t