Mummy always said, "Never play with your food!"

But thats exactly what we did for the lesson. I love playing with electronic devices and owning a DSLR is my dream. But I only said owning it, besides that I know nuts about photography. I just love playing and shooting. We got to see some examples of food layout and shooting angles and some basic tricks.

We each had to bring the food that we wish to take photos of and I chose to buy my favourite Coco Exotic from Four Leaves. And I shall let the pictures do the talking...

 

Just looks heavenly......yummy

Played with the settings by changing colour   

 Cute Elmo!!! (Close shot)

 Macarons and T (tried an angular shot)

Fruit Tarts (Filling the 2/3s)

Food Porn 1001

As weird or inappropriate as the title suggests. Food porn has nothing to do with sexuality. According to the always useful site - wiki, "Food Porn is a glamourized spectacular visual presentation of cooking or eating in advertisements, infomercials."

Well in layman terms, it is just food portrayed very nicely in photos. After an hour long lecture by our dear teachers on the basics of food photography, it was time to get down to work. Unlike my peers who had lots of props readied. The few of us went to Mcdonalds to settle our selection of food.

Here's a few photos of mine to show how I ended up with my final desired photo.

As we all know, burgers from Mcdonalds look totally different form their photos in advertisements. One will always wonder what happened to all the lettuce, fresh burger bun, plus thick and juicing patties. Well of course the photos always have a disclaimer: Photos displayed are for illustration purposes only.

I had the idea of trying to bring out the essence of fast food among students. We have it while doing of our work, or when skimming tons of readings in school. The photo below belongs to one of the few trials I had. The placement was not very ideal, the empty Mcflurry (extra prop) overshadowed the main item for the photo. Note, I tried to sprinkle some water onto the cover to make it look like it was cold haha.

The second photo displayed a greater depth of field, look at how the tip of the pen contrasted to the top in terms of focus. The photo below was another idea Mrs Stevenson gave. The burger bun was glazed with some olive oil to make it look shinier.

And finally, here below is my last photo, which is considered the better shot one compared to the rest. I tried to arrange the items in a triangular manner and had them take up about 2/9 each of the full photo. My peers did a much better job as they came really well prepared, I really learned a lot through their work and my own trials. =)

Sien Long Signing Off

e learning assignment

1)      http://www.pinterest.com/sheryleen/plating-ideas/

Interest is a great website to find ideas. There are many activities and food experiments available for teachers to incorporate in their lesson plan. Above link is useful for teachers to share with students on plating techniques and ideas that they can use for practical.

 

2)      Nutrition.sg

The above website can be used to help students and teachers in coursework. It provides information that is based on Singapore’s context.   The website includes nutrition calculators which is useful for teachers. Teachers can allow students to access the website and ask them to calculate their BMI, calorie etc. This website also provides calories of local food which teachers can show to students during meal planning lesson etc.

3)      http://www.pinterest.com/kcolgrove/ideas-for-nutrition-lessons/

The above linked gives teacher and students lesson idea for food and experiments and recipes to teach a particular topic. There are resources and lesson plans and activities that is available for teacher to use for free. 

Useful Websites for Students and Teachers

1) http://www.nutrition.com.sg/ho/index.asp

This website has data and information in Singapore context which is very useful when I want to create lesson plans. The information could be used as a supplementary resource on top of the textbook. It also has a comprehensive list of all the local food with the energy level, macronutrients and others. Within the website they have many links which the upper secondary students can use when looking for recipes or information for their coursework.

2) http://ediblecrafts.craftgossip.com/

This website is very useful for students as it has ideas and instructions on how to do food crafts. They could use these ideas for food presentation. It also has thematic set-ups. Not only is it food-related, they also have sewing projects and craft ideas, which covers the curriculum of Home Economics. They have many links to simple and easy recipes, which is useful for coursework.

3) http://www.nhs.uk/Pages/HomePage.aspx

This website has a lot of information about the different diseases and treatments. It will be a useful resource for students when they need to know more about such conditions. They also have many healthy recipes and the latest health related news article. There are many videos and nutrition related tools for use.

Rani

Useful Websites for Teaching Food and Nutrition

Often, we have to emphasise to students to use reliable websites when quoting references for coursework. But then again, students continue to surprise us with citations from howstuffworks, wikipedia  and etc. 

Today, I  came across websites that serves both teachers and students. Teachers can use these websites to supplement their knowledge in areas of Home Economins and Food and Nutrition. In addition some of them provide great lesson ideas beyond textbook and worksheets. Students can benefit by obtaining reliable sources for their coursework.

1) http://www.nutrition.gov

This website provides vast of information, covering topics from nutrition across life span, diet related diseases, nutritive value of food and food labelling. I got very excited myself while i was looking through the websites. The resources are many but not exhaustive. One particular features I like is the  USDA National Nutrient Database which allows us  to find nutrient information on over 8,000 foods.This is especially useful when students are required to evaluate meals that they planned for their coursework. The advantage of this website is that, they provide many metric conversions and it is user friendly. It doesn't requires us to be an IT savvy to navigate our way. The downside however, nutrition composition of Asian food is not in the system.

2) http://foodtube.net/

This website is simply amazing with its collection on cooking videos. Students can use this websites to learn more on cooking a particular dish, from manipulating of ingredients to food presentation. Both skills are necessary for their coursework practical exam. One advantage of the website is that recipes are grouped e.g. chicken recipes, breakfast recipes etc,making it easy to find for recipes. In addition the steps in the videos are not complicated and it can be easily understood by studentsThe downside however, is that, Asian dishes are not available and this might not be applicable if students are required to learn Asian dishes.

Video on Chicken Cordon Bleu Recipe

3) http://www.eatright.org/public/default.aspx (Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics)

Previously known as as American Dietetic Association, this website offers multitude of resources that compliments topics taught in Food and Nutrition. It covers topic such as childhood obesity, nutrients, diet related diseases. Students can use the information to support their research in the coursework, especially pertaining to diet-related diseases. However, nutrition guidelines are according to USA's context and might not be applicable for the purpose of teaching and learning in our system.

Lesson ideas are one "google"step away!

Hi! Here’s a review of several web resources which really useful when it comes to teaching the Upper Secondary Food and Nutrition subject. So why crack your brains when lesson ideas are one "google"step away!

Foodtube.net (http://foodtube.net/)

 This is basically a compilation of food and recipe videos. I have decided to list down the pros and cons for each website for your convenience!

Pros:

A very comprehensive collection of all kinds of video recipes.

Videos are embedded from youtube, thus easy to access.

There are many categories and tags to find what you are interested in.

Cons:

Most recipe videos do not focus too much on the rationales behind cooking steps, but a mere demonstration of the methods.

Recipes could be included with pages, instead of having to search from the youtube page.

Checkout a video from the site~

Homemade Pecan Pies from Foodtube!

In general, teachers will find this website as a useful resource for lesson preparation. Many videos here could be used as demonstration videos that can be shown before the start of the practical to highlight important learning points of a dish. During lessons, the website can also be introduced to students for them to source for recipes and ideas in their coursework preparation. Of course, there are many food related videos which would also spark interest in the upper sec. students in food and nutrition. It would definitely be fun if teachers or students could screen a short video once per week for the class, to learn about specialty dishes and add on something into our dish vocabularies.

Health Promotion Board (http://www.hpb.gov.sg/HOPPortal/)

How could we miss out the Health Promotion Board Website when it comes to finding resources for Singapore Food and Health?

Pros:

All educational resources are free and downloadable.

Contains comprehensive information on food, nutrition and health under the Singapore context.

Contains up-to-date information and reports of health issues in Singapore.

Reliable and legitimate source of information.

Cons:

Less theoretical information on food science area available.

Teachers will find this website useful when it comes to online tools such as recipe analysers, food intake assessment, and food composition. These are tools which will likely be required in the coursework of upper sec. students in their research and planning. For example, students will find the recipe analyser really useful to breakdown their recipes to its nutritional contents easily, and use these information to justify and relate to the daily intake of an individual. Additionally, the website also has a section containing resources specially prepared for educators of different levels. These materials have strong elements of NE and health awareness, definitely suitable for CCE and NE lessons!

Edible Crafts (http://ediblecrafts.craftgossip.com/)

DIY Fondant daisies!

This is one of the most interesting websites on craft that one can come across. A the name suggests, there are indeed EDIBLE crafts included with the DIY information and nice illustrations.  

Pros:

Wild and interesting ideas for dish presentation and recipe ideas.

Pictures and website layout will be interesting for both teachers and students to access.

Includes theme ideas for set meals and occasions.

 Spongebob theme for food party!

Cons:

Most edible crafts may not be suitable for the nutritional aspect of planning.

Not all crafts under website are edible!

These teeth are actually a combination of apple slices and marshmallows!

Teachers will be able to use the website to inspire creativity in upper sec. students to add a spice to their food and recipe presentation methods. This is easily the best place to head to when students complain that they are out of ideas on dish presentation. In addition to that, the comprehensive guides on the edible crafts together with the simple recipes can easily be adapted into creating fun filler lessons for students.

Sien Long signing off!

Practical Lesson 1

Hola! Last Wednesday, marks our first practical class. Prior to this class, we were very excited on planning the dishes and the theme we would like to present. My partner and I, had chosen to work on an English tea theme . We decided to bake fruit tarts and scones and served it with earl grey tea. The challenge to this practical session is the time constraint as we were given only one and a half hour to prepare and serve our dishes.  We managed to work within the time limit and we are very pleased with the outcome of our products. We believed that we were able work within the time frame as our workbench was organized and we planned a step ahead. Most importantly we remained focus in completing the task. 

As you can see, the  pictures illustrate the start,the middle and at  the end of the session. Mrs Stevenson had asked us to do so, because it reflects our work process throughout the entire session. With this visual prove, we can reflect on our work conditions and think of ways to improve it. Reflective practice serves to help us become better at what we are doing. 

Reflection:

While preparing for food presentation, I accidentally placed a box that I used to store my crockeries. I feel that this is inappropriate due to hygiene practices. Hence I must be very careful that while preparing, that hygiene is not compromised.

Here are some of the feedbacks by Mrs Stevenson on my product

• Using of odd numbers. When it comes to the rule of serving, often odd numbers catches the attention. e.g. instead of serving 4 fruit tarts, served 3 tarts. 
• We may remove the basket and the butter knife to prevent too many things on our table mat.

After serving, we were given the opportunity to look at other groups and this was a learning opportunity for all of us.

Here are the tips given by Mrs Stevenson:

1. Ensure colour of the crockeries matches
2. Prevent from overdoing the presentation e.g. cluttering of decorations
3. Ensure that a decorative item has a purpose and not forced into the presentation.
4. Be mindful of the serving portion.

Tips to conduct practical class :

1) Always link theory to the practical class. Some teachers do separate theory and practical. However by integrating theory into practical, learning is more meaningful to the students and they will gain better understanding of the topic. Here is an interesting fact I chanced upon :

The percentages listed represent the average amount of information that is retained through that particular learning method. Note what method produces the highest retention rate.

1. Lecture = 5%
2. Reading = 10%
3. Audiovisual = 20%
4. Demonstration = 30%
5. Discussion Group = 50%
6. Practice by doing = 75%
7. Teach others / immediate use of learning = 90%

http://www.ndt-ed.org/TeachingResources/ClassroomTips/Constructivist%20_Learning.htm

2) Positioning of the teacher and the students. Mrs Stevenson highlighted proximity is an important factor when conducting a practical class.Ensures that the students are neither too far from us or standing behind our backs. This is actually a classroom management technique to prevent students from deviating and starting their own conversation. In fact it is advisable that we keep a watchful eye during the practical session to ensure safety of all students. Hence knowing where to position ourselves can help to reduce the chance of mishaps. 

3) Recipes should be sectioned into steps. There are several reasons as to why this is important. Firstly by sectioning the recipe, students will be able to grasp the steps and there are higher chance of them doing it correctly, as opposed to demonstrating the entire steps. Students might get confuse and there are higher chances of mixing the steps. Secondly by sectioning, we can prevent students from being too restless while waiting. Misbehaviour can emanate when students are not engaged.

4) General rule of thumb, long recipes should be section into 3 steps while short recipes into 2 steps.

5) Provide time target to complete steps. This will ensure that we work on the time limit and students to remain focus.

6) Provide verbal affirmation as we are facilitating the practical class.This will keep the students motivated and reassure  that they are doing the task correctly.

Recipe for fruit tarts

Ingredients:

Short Crust Pastry:

100g plain flour

50g fat

2 tbsp water

Custard Filling

1 tbsp custard powder

25g sugar

150ml milk

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

12g butter

Decoration

3 strawberries 

8 blueberries

3 kiwi 

Method:

1. Sift flour into mixing bowl.
2. Rub in the fat using finger tips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
3. Mix in the water with a palette knife or a knife and shape dough into a roll.
4. Preheat oven 190C.
5. Turn onto a lightly floured board and knead slightly. Roll out dough to slightly less than   0.5cm thickness.
6. Cut with a cutter and line patty tins with pastry.Prick the base with a fork.
7. Bake “blind” for about 20 mins or until golden brown.
8. Allow pastry to cool.
9. Prepare custard. Blend custard powder with a little milk. Add sugar, vanilla and the rest of the milk. Cook stirring all the time until mixture boils and thicken. Stir in butter. Pour into tartlets.
10. Fill tartlets with custard and fruits.

Recipe for Scones

Ingredients:

175g self-raising flour, plus more for dusting

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

85g butter, cut into cubes

3 tbsp caster sugar

175ml milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

beaten egg, to glaze

jam and cream cheese, to serve

Methods:

1. Heat oven to 220C.

2. Place the flour into a large bowl with the salt and baking powder, then mix. Add the     -----butter, then rub in with your fingers until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in the -----sugar.

3. Put the milk into a jug and heat in the microwave for about 30 secs until warm. Add the -----vanilla, then set aside for a moment. Place a baking sheet on the tray.

4. Make a well in the dry mix, then add the liquid and combine it quickly with a palette ----------knife. 

5. Turn onto a lightly floured board and knead slightly. Roll out dough to slightly less than ------5cm thickness.

6. Using a 5cm smooth-edged cutter, to cut about 8 scones. Glaze the top with beaten ---------egg, then  place onto the baking tray.

7. Bake for 10 mins until risen and golden on the top. Serve with jam or cream cheese.

The Role of a Home Economics Teacher

The preconceived notion of a Home Economics (HE) teacher is one who teaches students to cook and sew. Its sad that the efforts and hard work of these teachers have not widely gained accreditation due such a mindset of the society.

Many many years ago, I had a lot of fun during my HE classes. Yes, I did learn new dishes and skills and also learnt to sew. And the boys who went for their Technical classes would be willing guinea pigs as they wanted to try our dishes. But that was not all. There were other aspects involved as well, like home care, clothes care and child care.

Years down the road, the syllabus has gone through many changes with the removal of sewing. Prior to that, they learnt about fundamentals of design and textile which teaches them how to chooses colours, the different types of fabrics and their uses and proper use and care. In the future HE will be renamed as Food and Consumer Education (FCE). Focusing on two core areas which is food studies and consumer studies. Students will learn about meal planning, diet & health, diet-related diseases, food management, resource management, budgeting and consumer awareness.

HE is a very specialized subject and I believe that due credit should be given to the teachers. One of the reasons that I began my journey to become one could have been possibly due to the influence of my experiences during my school days and because of my teacher. Students don't just learn skills, but important life skills. Knowledge on not just how to cook dishes, but modifying or enhancing it. How food affects the body, why is food required or importance of nutrients. These are just a few to name on what the students will be equipped with. As a future HE teacher I hope to change that perception that it is not just about cooking and sewing. It's more than that......

Overview of Food and Nutrition Lesson 1

Today in class we were introduced to the overall framework of Home Economics and Food and Nutrition. We did comparisons across different streams and level. In addition, we explored a coursework question and came up with keywords and questions related to the identified keywords.

‘O’ and ‘N’ level syllabus

The comparisons, we did were in the  following sections : aims, assessment objectives, topics covered and examination format. Here are our findings:

Aims: The aims across both syllabus were the same except in the aspect of food science.

‘O’ Level : To develop candidate’s understanding of the principles of food science

‘N’ Level : To introduce the principles of food Science

Clearly, at the ‘N’ level stage, the concept of food science is fairly new  to the students and the  students may not be required to develop a deep understanding in this topic. However the term ‘develop’ as stated in the O level syllabus , indicates a higher level than introduction. Students are expected to have some knowledge of the topic and this knowledge is further enhanced during the course of ‘O’ level year. Hence students are constructing new knowledge based on their existing understanding of food science. 

Assessment Objectives : Similar to aims, we found the assessment objectives in the ‘O’ level encompassed more aspects. The following were the criteria in the ‘O’ level syllabus but not in the‘N’ level.

 

The ‘O’ level students are expected to acquire skills such as observing, recording and evaluating data.These skills are necessary when students are doing coursework B. 

Subject Content: The two are different in two aspects i.e. the topics covered and the learning outcomes. The topic ‘Digestion’ is covered in the ‘O’ level syllabus and not in the ‘N’ level syllabus. While the learning outcomes for the ‘N’ level students require them to have the basic knowledge on a particular topic, the learning outcomes for the ‘O’ levels students ,require them to understand and comprehend the topic. This is evident e.g. in the ‘N’ level learning outcomes, students are expected to define essential and non essential amino acids, while the ‘O’ level students are required to ‘differentiate essential amino acids’ . According to Bloom’s taxonomy, define requires a lower level of thinking as compared to differentiate as students need to understand and do a comparison. 

http://thinkonline.smarttutor.com/blooming-orange-blooms-taxonomy-helpful-verbs-poster/

Following this activity, we were tasked to compare the upper and lower secondary syllabus.Our findings showed that topics in upper secondary are mainly an extension from the lower secondary syllabus. Here are some interesting ideas of how we can introduce upper secondary syllabus into the lower secondary syllabus :

• Practical sessions is a good platform to introduce upper secondary to the students. During this time, teachers can  introduce macro and micro nutrients present in the food or introducing terminologies or processes related to food science e.g. maillard browning, caremelisation , gel formation, gelatinization. Students are generally engaged during practical sessions, hence, teachers should seize the opportunity to pass on as much knowledge to the students. I recalled during a practical session with the secondary one normal technical class. We were making mushroom omelette. During the demo session, while waiting for the proteins to set, and to flip it to the other side, i used the waiting time, to introduce the term coagulation and maillard browning. After the practical class, I asked the students to recall what the have learned and they mentioned the two terms. This has made me realized that students learn when they are engaged and as teachers, we should not underestimate the abilities of our students. 

-The current curriculum has provided more allowance  in the curriculum, known as the white space. Schools are encouraged to implement elective activities during this period. Hence teachers can incorporated interesting food science electives where students are taught experimental skills such as measuring, observing and drawing conclusions.

-Teachers can also introduce coursework at the lower secondary level, but we must keep in mind to make it simple, and interesting. Mrs Stevenson mentioned we can implement a mini project that incorporates certain aspect of the coursework.

Often students are not aware of the demands in food and nutrition, which lead to feeling of disappointment and regret joining food and nutrition. Most of them commented that they never expected the subject to be demanding. Hence it is important to introduce upper secondary syllabus in the lower secondary syllabus  so as to provide students with the realistic overview of food and nutrition. Having said that, Mrs Stevenson reminded us not to implement the entire coursework in the lower secondary syllabus, because we have to keep in mind that only a small percentage of the students will be taking food and nutrition. 

Lastly we were given a coursework question and  in our group, we had to identify keywords and churn relevant questions . We did a gallery walk to share our findings with the rest of the classmates. During the gallery walk, Mrs Stevenson gave us sticky notes to comment on other groups’ work. We felt that the gallery walk is a great classroom activity for sharing because it allows us participate actively, hence learning is enhanced. This is something that we will definitely incorporate in our classroom. 

 Here are some questions that we collated:

1. What are the reasons that children dislike vegetables?
2. What are the safety aspects when preparing food for children?
3. What is the appropriate serving size for children?
4. What type of food is served in childcare centre?
5. What is the effect of heat on the chosen vegetable?
6. How can food be appealing to children?

Coursework Questions

Hi everyone! We have came up with 2 questions that can be use for the new coursework. Both these questions incorporate the elements of coursework A and B.
Do read and share with us your thoughts on the questions below :)

1. It is important to include dietary fibre in the diet of the elderly. Investigate the effect of cooking on vegetables and demonstrates how they can be used to prepare and serve a variety of dishes for the elderly.

2. Cereals are nutritious and used as staple food across different cultures. Investigate the role of heat in cooking different cereals and design a variety of healthy cereal dishes for a group of people.

Here we go!

Hi everybody! Welcome to our blog on the teaching of Home Economics!

First of all, if you were able to find your way here, it could be likely because:

1) You are one of our dear teachers or classmates ;)
2) You are enthusiastic about home economics
3) You are a food lover
4) You are a fellow colleague in our same line of profession
5) You were searching for something else and ended up here instead! Just kidding =)

Nevertheless, we (Sien Long, Nisa, Simah, Rani) welcome you and hope you will find our blog interesting and informative! This blog will be an avenue for us student teachers to share with you our learning journeys in the National Institute of Education (NIE), teaching strategies, reflections, home economics,food and nutrition, and any interesting ideas which we will happen to stumble upon.

As you might have noticed, Newtrition Unplugged is a pun of the word Nutrition - which you might have probably already figured out. As for the word unplugged, some of us who love music would know that it refers to acoustic music or any music without electronic amplification or modification, in other words, music that is close to the audiences! So in Newtrition Unplugged, we hope to bring to you new,original, and close topics which we and you can both relate to!

Cheers!!!
Nisa
Rani
Sien Long
Simah