Background Agricultural Connections
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Spice-up Space Food is a Project-Based Learning Plan (PBL). PBL is a teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an authentic, engaging, and complex question, problem, or challenge.1 |
Essential Elements of PBL
A quality PBL experience requires seven essential elements.
- Challenging Problem or Question: The project is framed by a meaningful problem to be solved or a question to answer, at the appropriate level of challenge.
- Sustained Inquiry: Students engage in a rigorous, extended process of posing questions, finding resources, and applying information.
- Authenticity: The project involves real-world context, tasks and tools, quality standards, or impact, or the project speaks to personal concerns, interests, and issues in the students' lives.
- Voice and Choice: Students make some decisions about the project, including how they work and what they create.
- Reflection: Students and teachers reflect on the learning, the effectiveness of their inquiry and project activities, the quality of student work, and obstacles that arise and strategies for overcoming them.
- Critique and Revision: Students give, receive, and apply feedback to improve their process and products.
- Public Product: Students make their project work public by explaining, displaying, and/or presenting it to audiences beyond the classroom.2
Food in Space
The processes of freeze drying started in the Andes Mountains. People would take crops up to higher elevations and leave them to freeze for days.3 As the vegetable lost water content, the nutritional value remained. This allowed for the preservation and storage of food for emergencies. While we still use freeze drying as a way to preserve food, its current primary purpose is for space food and use in the military.
As we continue to send people into space and travel further from Earth, providing quality and nutritious foods is important. Since the first mission into space, food has improved and continues to improve. Several factors need to be considered while eating space.
Many astronauts share their concern that the food in space doesn't taste as good. Since there is no gravity, astronauts often feel like they have a head cold.4 This causes a reduced sense of taste and smell in space. Due to this reduced sense of taste, astronauts often want to add more seasoning. This is easy when the seasoning is in liquid form. Granulated seasonings cannot be used in space since they could float away and possibly get stuck in equipment.
With so much equipment in space, everything needs to be compact and easy to use. This includes food. Food must be lightweight and easy to store and reheat. As food scientists create food to send into space, these challenges must be considered.
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This PBL plan introduces students to the following career opportunities: food scientist and technologist, dietitian and nutritionist, baker, food microbiologist, food chemist, quality control supervisor, food batchmaker, marketing specialist, retail salesperson, chefs and head cooks, food service manager. Explore the career profiles to discover job outlooks, education requirements, and average salaries.
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