A National Food Safety Education Program: Building a Multidisciplinary Food Safety Training Pipeline from K-12 to Graduate School

<p>NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY:<br/> Foodborne disease are estimated, based on a study publishes in 1999, to cause 76 million cases of human illness annually, including 5,000 deaths. Improving the safety of our food supply requires a well educated and diverse workforce at all levels of training, including BS, MS, and PhD degrees for employment by industry, government, and academia. This project brings together a multi-institutional and multidisciplinary team, including two 1890 Land Grant Colleges and Universities (i.e., Alabama A&M, NC A&T), (ii) Texas Wesleyan University, which has a diverse student body with a large number of Hispanic and African American students, and (iii) four institutions that are well recognized as leaders in food safety research and training (Cornell, Purdue, Colorado State, North Carolina State), to create and conduct innovative research and
classroom-based graduate and undergraduate training activities in the area of food safety. These efforts will be integrated with education and training activities in K-12, including training of teachers, to build an overall pipeline of students that will be prepared for employment in the area of food safety. Key program activities include (i) development and delivery science teachers' workshops focusing on food safety in order to expose students and teachers to career opportunities in food safety; (ii) K-12 food safety activities and experiments to be taught by graduate and undergraduate students; (iii) a multi-institutional undergraduate summer research program in food safety. (iv) recruitment and training of undergraduate students through "food safety tracks" to be developed within existing food science undergraduate programs, and (v) development of multi-institutional approaches for
graduate programs in food safety.
<p>APPROACH:<br/> This project will use a multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary team to create and conduct innovative research and classroom-based undergraduate and graduate training activities in food safety, which will be integrated with K-12 student and teachers education and training activities. Our team includes (i) two 1890 Land Grant Colleges and Universities (i.e., Alabama A&M, NC A&T), (ii) Texas Wesleyan University, which has a diverse student body with a large number of Hispanic and African American students, and (iii) four institutions that are well recognized as leaders in food safety research and training (Cornell, Purdue, Colorado State, North Carolina State). The specific methods for the 5 objectives are Obj. 1: We will develop both a 1-day and a multi-day science teachers' workshop; these workshops will be taught by various participating institutions.
Workshop materials and the supporting teaching materials will be made available broadly to any interested institutions. Obj. 2: This objective represents two related efforts, including (i) deployment of college students to local elementary, middle, and high schools to teach K-12 audiences about food safety and food safety careers and (ii) teaching of workshops at FAA, 4H, and similar conferences, which will draw an audience from wider geographical areas. Obj. 3: We will develop a multi-institutional "Food Safety Undergraduate Summer Research Program", which will provide students in various agricultural and biological disciplines with an opportunity to gain exposure to food safety career opportunities and to develop research, critical thinking, team work, and leadership skills that they can apply to food safety issues. Students for this program will be recruited nationally, with a
specific effort on recruiting students from traditionally underrepresented minorities through partnerships with appropriate universities. Students accepted into the program will be matched with individual faculty members at participating institutions and will complete a 10-week research program with their faculty mentors. Research projects will be selected to focus on providing students with broad exposure to food safety as well as interdisciplinary research training in food safety. Obj. 4: Cornell, Purdue, and North Carolina State will initially develop a list of core competencies for undergraduates in food safety and will use these core competencies to develop a specific undergraduate food safety curriculum Obj. 5: We will (i) develop an integrated approach to advertise food safety graduate training opportunities at the participating institutions and to recruit graduate students, (ii)
develop of a clearing house for graduate student food safety internships opportunities, (iii) develop a joint, case study based, advanced food safety class that will be taught to graduate students at all participating institutions via video conferencing, and (iv) l develop and implement, at Cornell, a curriculum for a a classroom-based professional Masters degree in food safety.
<p>PROGRESS: 2012/02 TO 2013/01<br/>Target Audience: Target audiences include K-12 teachers and students, undergraduate and graduate students as well as other academic researchers that provide training opportunities in food safety. Additionally, this program also targets potential employees of graduates with food safety training in government and industry. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? This project has a major overall focus on training and professional development, as detailed in the above section entitled �What was accomplished under these goals?�. For example, under aim 1, professional development opportunities were provided for a large number of middle and high school teachers that participated in our workshops. Under general aim 3, six undergraduate students with
interests in food safety were provided training and professional development through the 2012 food safety summer scholar program, which had participants at Purdue, Texas Tech, and Cornell. Under aim 5, we are also developing and facilitating professional development through food safety related internships in industry and government; for example, Cornell graduate students with a food safety emphasis have completed an international internships and experiences, including in Thailand, Mexico, and Kenya. Across all aims, graduate students have participated actively in various program activities, providing important training and professional development for them, which will facilitate their future careers in food safety. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Results have been disseminated through presentations at professional meetings (e.g., the annual IAFP
meetings) as well as through the Food Safety Wiki, which has been specifically developed for this project (see https://confluence.cornell.edu/display/FOODSAFETY/). What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Activities contributing to all five aims will continue during the next reporting period. We specifically plan to conduct teacher�s workshop in New York, North Carolina, and Alabama and to offer food safety activities for K-12 students in the same states. We will again offer the food safety summer scholar program and plan to recruit 4 to 6 students. For aim 4, we plan to complete development of core competencies for an undergraduate food safety program using a modified Delphi approach; this will facilitate further implementation of food safety undergraduate concentrations in different programs throughout the US.
<p>PROGRESS: 2011/02/01 TO 2012/01/31<br/>OUTPUTS: As career opportunities and undergraduate majors in Food Science and Food Safety are largely unrecognized by most K-12 educators and their students, the number of graduates from Food Science and Food Safety undergraduate and graduate programs remains low, limiting the number of well-trained and diverse food safety professionals available for employment. The goal of this project is to develop a multi-institutional and multidisciplinary program to create and conduct innovative research and classroom-based graduate and undergraduate training activities in food safety. Outputs from this project during the current reporting period have occurred in four project aims. (1) Develop and conduct science teachers' workshops that enable the teachers to use food safety experiments and advise students on careers in food safety: Cornell
held its first high school teachers' workshop with 9 attendees in October 22; held a workshop session on food safety with 20 attendees for the Cornell Institute of Biology Teachers in January 2012; and presented two back-to-back sessions entitled "Introducing Food Safety Investigation in the Science Classroom" at the 2011 Science Teachers Association of New York State (STANYS) conference in November. NCA&TSU held a one day six hour introductory food science/food safety hands-on preconference with 11 attendees in July 2011 as part of the North Carolina Family and Consumer Sciences Education Summer Conference and participated in a workshop for family and consumer science teachers in January 2012. Texas Wesleyan University hosted a one-day "Teaching Food Safety Workshop" for High School Science Teachers in August 2011. Alabama A&M University also participated in multiple food science
sessions with high school teachers and students during the Fall 2011 semester. (2) Develop and deliver K-12 food safety activities and experiments to be taught by graduate and undergraduate students: Activities under this aim included a food safety booth in the 4-H Youth Building at the New York State Fair in 2011 (engaged over 600 people) as well as a two and a half day Food Safety workshop as part of the 4H Career Explorations conference at Cornell June 28-30. (3) Develop and conduct a multi-institutional undergraduate summer research program in food safety: Five undergraduate students with interests in food safety participated in the 2011 Cornell Summer Undergraduate Research Program; three undergraduate students participated in a five-week Food Safety Summer Scholars Program at Texas Wesleyan University, and two undergraduates participated in a similar summer program at NCA&T. (4)
Recruit and train undergraduate students through a "food safety track" within existing food science undergraduate programs: We have initiated development of dedicated food safety curricula at both Cornell and NC State and anticipate implementation of these curricula in 2012/13. Full details of program outcomes can be accessed through dedicated project WWW pages that are part of the Food Safety Wiki that has been developed for this project; see https://confluence.cornell.edu/display/FOODSAFETY/National+Food+Safet y+Education+Program+Grant. PARTICIPANTS: Individuals who worked on project as directors and co-directors include Martin Wiedmann, Project Director and Kathryn J. Boor, Co-PD, both at Cornell University; Kendra K. Nightingale, Co-PD, originally at Colorado State University and now at Texas Tech University, Haley F. Oliver, Co-PD at Purdue University, Lee-Ann Jaykus, Co-PD at North
Carolina State University; Martha Verghese, Co-PD at Alabama A&M University, Salam Ibrahim, Co-PD at North Carolina A & T State University, Angela J. Roberts, Co-PD at Texas Wesleyan University. In addition, Travis Chapin and Rachel Pfuntner, both graduate students at Cornell University and Anna Van Stelten, originally at Colorado State University and now at Texas Tech also participated in this project and obtained training as part of this project. Peter Bergholz and Steven Warchocki also provided project support and coordination. Key partner organizations and collaborators in Year 1, in addition to the seven collaborating universities, include 4H organizations as well as the Science Teachers Association of New York State (STANYS). TARGET AUDIENCES: Target audiences include K-12 teachers and students, undergraduate and graduate students as well as other academic researchers that provide
training opportunities in food safety. Additionally, this program also targets potential employees of graduates with food safety training in government and industry. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.