Seafood certificate program for the culinary arts program at Thunder Mountain High School (Juneau, Alaska).

The certificate was issued by Angela Hunt (Better Seafood Processing School, Oregon State University Seafood Laboratory, Astoria, Oregon).
Coursework was taught by Keith Cox PhD (Seafood Analytics, Juneau, Alaska) and Jay Watts (Thunder Mountain High School, Juneau, Alaska).

Report prepared by Keith Cox

Certificate program

A seafood certificate program was developed and offered to high school students to help provide immediate workplace development employability while simultaneously introducing them to seafood industry careers. Students in all of Jay Watts three culinary arts class (n=79 students) at Thunder Mountain High School (TMHS) in Juneau, Alaska participated in the certificate program. The program was offered as a “flipped classroom” design consisting of 4 short presentations (~10 minutes/presentation) and two hands on components. Learning was measured by pre and post tests (100 pts each). Average student scores increased from 33% to 80% (pre to post tests) indicating the at programn was successfull in passing off knowledge within this format. The hands on portion allowed students to see first hand the degradation of quality by seafood products. A student received a certificate if they pasted the post-test with a score of 70%. 85% of the students received a certificate. 67 certificates were awarded.

Students were given an online pretest that was created and given on “google forms”. Completed tests were immediately scored by the google form program.
The test is found here. Pre-test

Results showed that the average score for all students was 33% (33 correct answers on a 100 question test). The distribution was slightly skewed to the right. See information below.

There were four videos that were given online each of about 10 minutes. Each video consisted of one of four sections. The sections were 1) the seafood industry, 2) catching and harvesting, 3) processing and storage, and 4) sanitization and lab equipment. Total teaching time was less than 1 hour.

The objective was to allow students a hands on experience to show them that organoleptic evaluations can be used to follow quality degradation of seafood products.

Part 1. Students were given a previously frozen sockeye salmon cutlet. It was held in a tupperware type container and refridgerated. Each day, students would smell the cutlet and record what it smelled like.

Part 2. A Certified Quality Reader (CQR) manufactured by Seafood Analytics (Detroit, MI) was connected to a fish fillet. The unit automatically took a measure every 30 minutes. The product was left at room temperature to increase the rate of degradation. Students watched the numbers change as the product degraded.

Scores improved on the post test to an average score of 80%. 85% of the students passed the post-test with a score greater than 70%. The post-test can be found here. Post-test.

  1. Determine if we are continuing again next year.
  2. Write out lesson plan for the hands on experiments.
  3. Write out a lesson plan to cover all aspects of this certificate.
  4. Refine videos.