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Slide Notes

It was not difficult to select a trend from The New Media Consortium's Higher Education Horizon Report: I immediately fell for the mid-range trend of shifting students from education consumers to content creators. This exciting new development is taking place in library rooms, basements and online forums, on- or off-campus, and everywhere else where there is an opportunity to indulge in hands-on, experiential learning. And there is a name for these dens of discovery: Makerspaces.

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Making a Case for Culinary Makerspaces

Published on Nov 18, 2015

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PRESENTATION OUTLINE

Making a Case for Culinary Makerspaces

EDTECH501 - Nicole Holten Baird
It was not difficult to select a trend from The New Media Consortium's Higher Education Horizon Report: I immediately fell for the mid-range trend of shifting students from education consumers to content creators. This exciting new development is taking place in library rooms, basements and online forums, on- or off-campus, and everywhere else where there is an opportunity to indulge in hands-on, experiential learning. And there is a name for these dens of discovery: Makerspaces.

Photo by mr.beaver

Culinary Makerspace

Applied Learning - Creative Exploration - Entrepreneurship
Makerspaces, hackerspaces or make-to-learn initiatives provide a fascinating opportunity to increase ways of actively learning outside of the classroom. These are physical spaces that are outfitted with technology and tools that will allow students to engage in projects, hands-on activities and experiments.

Even though the Culinary Arts curriculum provides a high, hands-on learning experience, students (and faculty!) would benefit greatly from this new educational trend.
Photo by CAFNR

Applied Learning

Self-directed or class projects
Students can apply what they learned, outside of the classroom, whether it's in self-directed or peer-to-peer projects. For one, class curriculum dictates that the culinary basics are taught but, because of time constraints, budgetary controls and other restrictions, there is not always time or opportunity to experiment with different techniques, flavors or products.

Creative Exploration

Trial and Error 
One could suggest that the hands-on learning could be obtained while working in the industry, which is partially true: but the trial-and-error phase and the experimental learning is usually cut short by being released from one's duties for wasting time and wasting product. The tight ship that many restaurants run in this regard does not allow for much experimenting!
Photo by Claire Sutton

Entrepreneurship

Build supervisory skills
An additional learning opportunity comes from allowing students to manage and maintain the culinary Makespace facility (which initially could easily be the culinary arts kitchens outside of class time), as a hands-on lesson that coincides with the business aspect of their culinary education.

Skills such as scheduling, managing a budget, improving their interdepartmental communication and overseeing a lab environment will greatly add to their supervisory experience and could easily be integrated into their curriculum.

Benefits

Interdisciplinary
Working in conjunction with other educational departments may increase the creativity and output of emerging content: the students of the film and photography department could practice their food photography skills, while culinary students develop new ways of designing plate presentations. The outcome is a welcome addition to both portfolios!

Hurdles

Funds Facility Faculty
Culinary class curriculum dictates that the culinary basics are taught but, because of time constraints, budgetary controls and other restrictions, there is not always unlimited time or opportunity to experiment with different techniques, flavors or products.

Funds and donations could come from local agricultural commissions, food producers or restaurant supply stores in the area: students could easily test new products or tools or create new recipes.

Faculty could play a significant role in assisting the students, or to take advantage of the space for their own improvement.
Photo by katerha

Funds

Industry Partnering Crowd Sourcing
New culinary trends such as sous-vide, 3D edible printing and molecular gastronomy make use of unique tools and technology that may not be within the school's budget, but that could be obtained through crowd funding, donations, or working in conjunction with industry partners.
Photo by alexliivet

Facility

Existing Space 
Working kitchens do not lend themselves well for demonstrations or hands-on practice: but being able to use the technology, albeit briefly, in a dedicated learning environment would be highly motivating and engaging.
Photo by wwarby

Faculty

Feedback Skills Knowledge
University or community college departments that have not had lab time scheduled, whether because of time, curriculum or facility restrictions are finding that these makerspaces are highly beneficial to students' learning. Faculty is encouraged and newly inspired and can assist students with feedback, the sharing of skills and imparting further knowledge.
Photo by garryknight

A Maker likes to Make things. This isn’t anything new. In the past
people made and fixed things all the time. It feels good to figure out
how something works and how you can make it; it’s empowering.

It doesn’t matter what you Make, it matters that you Make.

— David Wells, New York Hall of Science

A Maker likes to Make things. This isn’t anything new. In the past 13
people made and fixed things all the time. It feels good to figure out
how something works and how you can make it; it’s empowering.
It doesn’t matter what you Make, it matters that you Make.
— David Wells, New York Hall of Science

Source: http://nysci.org/wp-content/uploads/nysci_maker_blueprint.pdf
Photo by Zanthia