Nuffield Home Economics

Nuffield Home Economics was developed with the support of the Nuffield Foundation between 1977 and 1981. The project had its origins in a series of in-service courses organised by the Centre for Science and Mathematics Education at Chelsea College. These courses were set up for home economics teachers who asked for help in deepening and refreshing their awareness of those aspects of scientific knowledge which are needed in the teaching of the subject.

Features of the course
The course aimed to play a vital part in developing in students the power to exercise discrimination in ordinary life, giving them - not set standards of how things should be done or made or cooked - but something higher and better: standards of judgment to which they will be able to refer throughout their careers and lives.

The project was designed to cover home economics education in two phases, a basic course for students up to the age of fourteen and a two-year course (ages 14-16) leading up to 16+ examinations.

Areas of study
The subject was divided into four areas of study. These were:
* Food science
* Nutrition
* Fibres and fabrics
* People and homes

The publications
In The Basic Course, the four areas of study were included in one book for students with a teachers' guide in parallel. A separate pack of worksheets and Overhead Projector (OHP) masters provided data, background information, and additional experiments (which is not yet included in the eLibrary).

For the age 14-16 materials the four areas of study were given separate student books, each with a separate teachers' guide. This arrangement allowed students to specialise in the areas of study of their choice and to develop further the skills and concepts met in the Basic Course. Packs of worksheets and OHP masters supplement the students’ texts.