D & T Topic: Year 8 Topic: Food—Staple Foods

Topic: Food—Staple Foods

Year Group: 8

Focus: 1. Staple Foods.

What we will be learning

Students will build upon the skills learnt in Year 7 by making dishes that focus on staple and seasonal ingredients such as; bread, spaghetti bolognaise, macaroni cheese, bread-based pizza and wholemeal carrot muffins.
In theory lessons pupils will develop a deeper understanding of the scientific functions of Ingredients. Consider the seasonality and provenance of their foods whilst thinking about the impact it might have on the environment.

Pupils develop their analysis of foods by tasting a range of orange juices and writing a best buy report.

Why is this important? Where does this link to future/past learning

The core literacy skills such as those developed when writing evaluations are also transferable to the other 2 areas of Design and Technology, i.e. Product Design and Textiles, and that is why developing core literacy skills is one of the main focuses for this module.
The dishes have been chosen as they each focus on a staple food that can be easily accessed at home. But also make pupils think about where their food comes from in regards to provenance. Like skills in Year 7 this knowledge needs to be mastered in order to become a confident and competent chef that understands the functions of the ingredients we cook with. For example, what flour does in a sauce and bread. What is the role of yeast? Each skill will then be built on and re-enforced through more complex recipes in year 9. For example, the same principles used to make the sauce in the Macaroni and Cheese are used when making the sauce for lasagne and Chicken Pot Pie in year 9.
Science in food is introduced in Year 8. Alongside the functions of some staple ingredients, pupils will learn about gelatinisation and fermentation giving a deeper theoretical understanding.
Other focussed skills include sensory analysis, looking at star profiling when tasting a range of orange juices. This prepares pupils for the work in Year 9 to make informed choices about their food. Linked to the vegetarianism module.

How will this topic be assessed? Formative and summative

Formative assessment and feedback happens each lesson through teacher questioning and advice on work in progress and completed. Students also have broad targets in their sketchbook that act as a scaffold for them to reflect on their work and generate their own personalised action plan for improvement in their learning. These targets are linked to “DIRT” activities aimed at building independence and metacognitive skills within the students
Summative assessment happens in three stages. Firstly, when assessing practical work, the teacher will assess students work in real time during the lesson and may pick out certain students for special credit. At the end of the food module teachers will award students a mark out of 40 taking into account all of the students practical work for that module.
The students evaluation writing skills and all other design skills will be assessed in their sketchbook. At the end of the module the teacher will award a mark out of 35 using comparative judgement and rank order.
Students theory knowledge will assessed through a theory “quest” which covers 25% of the overall mark

What make a strong piece of work in this topic, and what can I do to stretch myself in this topic?

When making the dishes pupils will be able to discuss what is happening in the recipes they are following.
When at home, discuss with people what is happening in your dishes. What makes them healthy?
When evaluating, ensure key words and scientific terms are used