This course is designed to teach students advanced concepts in biology through the science of food: including biochemistry of food, agriculture, food production, food safety, and technological advances. Students will apply biology and biochemical principles as they pertain to the food production, food preservation, food preparation, food safety and the food science industry through inquiry experiences while engaging in laboratory experiments, class discussions, field trips, and interaction with guest presenters.
Students will also engage in exploration of topics including the biochemistry of food macromolecules, nutrition, cell development (in both plants and animals), structure and function of tissues and organisms, sexual reproduction, microbiology, agriculture, and the environment through the lens of the course content, investigations, discussions and activities.
The Environmental Principles and Concepts are also embedded in the course as students understand and directly experience how their lives are dependent on natural systems in the production of food; how food production impacts natural systems; how natural systems are changed by people both through direct and indirect choices; and how these changes can have both beneficial and harmful impacts on the food sources people depend on. The environmental component is reinforced and directly experienced by students as they work in the school garden to grow food that will be later used in class, participate in “Project Save the Bees”, hand raise chickens from eggs, and as citizen science- participating in ongoing taste testing of local strawberry cultivars with the local commercial strawberry farmers.
Being an NGSS aligned laboratory science course, content will be presented through the doing of science with students spending the majority of time engaged in inquiry science using the Science and Engineering practices. Summative assessments will consist of written laboratory reports, class presentations, class projects, as well as more traditional assessment tools like written tests and quizzes.