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This project was a collaboration between Chef Christopher Polo of the Muncie Community Schools (MCS), Chartwells Dining Service K-12, and the senior dietetics students in NUTR 456 Community Nutrition. The students worked with Chef Polo to design, develop, and implement interactive nutrition education lessons, food demonstrations, and taste testings for all fourth-grade students in MCS. The students learned first-hand from Chef Polo about the food habits and behaviors of children. Chef Polo worked with the students to identify healthy recipes for taste-testing and simple healthy recipes the children can make. This collaborative project introduced the students to a potential career in school food-service while concomitantly providing them with a hands-on nutrition education experience. Similarly, the fourth graders were introduced to a variety of new foods, learned basic nutrition information, and practiced basic cooking skills which will help them and their families eat healthier.

Faculty Mentor: Carol Friesen
Department: Nutrition and Health Science
Community Partner: Muncie Community Schools
Students: Brianne Abell, Kailey Adkins, Morgan Brebberman, Dina Choucair, Molly Dirrim, Hope Eckland, Rachel Erdman, Shanae Gambles, Bradley Horton, Jonathan Isbill, Alexis Kampe, Sara Kruszynski, Adrienne Mayfield, Justin Pineiro, Alexis Sewell, Allie Shrader, Tieara Smith, Carly Spirito, Dakota Stites, Toni Stoermann, Sarah Tinkle, Cassidy Wheeler, Beth Wolters, Macey Zimmerman

In this partnership with Muncie Community Schools, participants engaged with elementary students and teachers at East Washington Academy to develop knowledge and skills for fostering children’s learning, with special attention to mathematics. Through the range of experiences, participants acquired the disposition to critically reflect on the larger social, political and cultural forces at work in American culture, the K -12 educational system as nested within it and locate themselves as culturally situated emergent educators. Participants also worked with parents to develop an understanding of the cultural contexts of children’s lives and encouraged building awareness of children’s mathematical learning experiences in the home and family life. Collaborative, interdisciplinary learning experiences for participants included working with the teachers to provide supplementary mathematics instruction for small groups of children, designing and implementing lessons for whole-class instruction, and designing and implementing a Family Math Night as the primary setting in which to engage parents and children in doing mathematics together! Students also supported a blog (https://preparingtoteachk12.wordpress.com/) aimed at building community and camaraderie among teacher candidates at a challenging time for the profession.

Faculty Mentors: Sheron Fraser-Burgess, Sheryl Stump, Lynette Varner
Departments: Educational Studies, Mathematical Sciences, Elementary Education
Community Partner: East Washington Academy
Students: Emily Alig, Sydney Amstutz, Lilia Arroyo, Megan Chalfant, Erin Halioris, Ayrrana Hickman, Logan Inman, Bryttani Knight, Josie Valentine