The overarching goal of this impact project is to make mycology accessible to more agriscience educators and students. Lesson plans were prepared to link core competencies and science standards to the Wild-Foraged Mushroom certification. Incorporating mycology into the classroom has many benefits, including discussions on food safety and…

A chemical engineering degree offers the possibility of a variety of career paths including food and beverage industry. However, chemical engineering students are rarely exposed to food processing examples during their education. Therefore, a new elective food processing course was developed and offered for the first time in the department of…

"Farm to campus" is a growing movement to mobilize the influence and power of colleges and universities to shape the food system. Research done before the Covid-19 pandemic shows that New England colleges with dining services served more than 87 million meals and spent nearly $400 million on food and beverage annually. Farm to…

Outreach activities give high school students an opportunity to better understand the techniques and strategies used by researchers. Here is an experience with high school students designed to familiarize them with genetic methodologies. Students have been challenged to discover whether restaurant beef burgers are made with female or male beef.…

Food insecurity affects 11.1% of households in the United States, leaving many families susceptible to poor diet quality (Coleman-Jensen et al., 2021). Food insecurity, as defined by the U. S. Department of Agriculture, can range from a decrease in the quality, variety, or desirability of the diet to disrupted eating patterns and reduced food…

During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global lockdowns changed the way food was accessed and prepared. These changes at the consumer level impacted farms and fisheries of all types and sizes. To compensate for the loss of larger markets and restaurant revenue, small-scale food producers pivoted to direct marketing to remain viable during…

Food systems challenges are on the rise globally -- and so is the need for well-equipped food educators. Teaching food literacy from a young age is critical in transforming the food system toward healthier and more sustainable diets. Many teachers are not prepared, and thus lack the confidence, to discuss systemic challenges and complicated…

An infosheet series titled "Safe Processing, Safe Food" has been developed and branded. The series is composed of peer-reviewed infosheets depicting conventional and emerging food processing technologies (FPTs) used to make foods safer. The goals of developing the infosheet series were to help Extension educators and, subsequently, the…

As a derivative of the core concept of literacy, food literacy can similarly either empower or disempower people. For example, the meaning of food literacy can be narrowed down to knowing how to grocery shop and prepare a meal, resulting in obedient neoliberal consumers who never challenge the food system. However, given the problems associated…

"'Who's Gonna Water My Tomatoes?': School Gardens, Kitchens, and the Search for Educational Authenticity" updates an old concept for our modern age, utilizing school gardens and culinary kitchens where students grow, prepare, and eat their own food. Over a century ago, the educational philosopher John Dewey proposed reforming education…

Aggressive and violent behaviour is a challenging psychiatric emergency to manage, especially among vulnerable categories such as patients with Intellectual Developmental Disorder. Although there is some evidence that clozapine may be useful as an anti-violence compound, its use is limited by common metabolic complications. An adult patient…

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently released an update to the nutrition standards schools must meet in the breakfasts and lunches served to more than 30 million children. The last time USDA fully updated school meal standards was in 2012. Research on the impact of those changes found that the nutritional quality of school meals…

A major challenge when designing new experiments for the general chemistry laboratory is introducing students to the necessary techniques while keeping the experiment engaging and accessible. This work presents a new multiweek activity designed to introduce students to advanced instrumentation in the form of high-performance liquid chromatography…

The ecological crisis threatens to overwhelm people to the point of inaction. This disconnection requires a spirituality of interdependence that motivates social change for the long term. Through theological reflection, ethical analysis, and an example of community practices, this paper shows how a rule of life focused on eucharistic eating…

A culinary exploration of the role of CO[subscript 2] in leavening is described. This demonstration substitutes dry ice for chemical leaveners in order to achieve the same pancake fluffiness. Under the universal framework of food and cooking, we developed this activity to bring aspects of phase transitions and chemical transformations to a broad…