Background
Home Economics Victoria supports the subjects and disciplines in schools that teach about food in an active learning style. The focus is on designing, producing and evaluating appetising and tasty food to promote the enjoyment of working with food that leads to a healthy lifestyle. The aim is to involve students in active learning where the approach is student-directed and gives students knowledge, skills and behaviours to function within a rapidly changing and expanding food market. The Program stimulates and supports skilful and effective thinking and reasoning processes through the design process. If young people are to be capable of selecting and preparing a safe and healthy balanced diet for themselves when they leave school or otherwise become independent, they need to have attained minimum competencies of food-related knowledge and skills. The Program will incorporate three main areas:
Food Design Challenge
The Food Design Challenge is an annual activity facilitated by teachers and open to all students across Victoria where students are using design briefs to learn how to prepare and cook a range of food items, to handle food safely, to apply healthy eating principles and develop their sensory awareness while completing the Challenge. Initiated in 2006 the Food Design Challenge has the capacity to increase student participation and build teacher capacity. In primary schools, there is also provision for input from parents.
Curriculum resources
New resources including VELS in Action curriculum packages are being developed.
Professional Learning
Home Economics Victoria provides statewide professional learning activities to build teacher capacity and in doing so effectively implement health and technology curriculum in line with the VELS.