STEM Clubs: engaging students using food technology NY634 / A17

Food technology is a real life cutting edge STEM subject, that can really bring your STEM club to life. It’s something students see and use every day and it can have a real impact on our lives and is a major UK industry.

This new course will give STEM Club leaders diverse food technology ideas for activities. Enabling you to support your students to understand and develop further and begin to have an appetite for a career in the food industry. We will give you an enthusiastic in-depth look at food and how it can underpin the schemes of work for STEM subjects:

• exploring our pop-up STEM sweet shop, you will experience a new view of chocolate and ice cream
• take a detailed look at the humble egg to find out how incredible and versatile it is
• explore ways to teach nutrition to improve students’ health
• look at how enzymes are used in the food industry and how microbes can be a friend or foe in the food we eat
• examine molecular gastronomy and how physics and chemistry are being used to develop new eating sensations in top restaurants

We will examine what is in the food we eat and ask, is the kitchen a laboratory where chemical and physical changes take place in a context that students can relate to? Exploring how to use food technology to inspire your students and think about the effect food production has on their lives.

STEM Clubs are a powerful and highly enjoyable way to engage students with STEM subjects. It enables you to get students working on topics that interest them but are free from the time restrictions of your main curriculum. STEM Clubs can also be a way of developing attainment and retention in your main curriculum for students who are interested in STEM education and for those that need extra support through a more hands on approach achieved through a less formal STEM Club environment.

Involvement in a STEM Club can provide students with an opportunity to gain practical, teamwork and leadership skills and increase confidence in the STEM subjects, engaging them with further study of STEM subjects and the opportunity to discover STEM-related careers.

This is residential course, fees include meals and accommodation for the duration of the course.