The Food and Drug Administration's Education and Outreach Program Targeting School-Aged Childrend

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ABSTRACT: Food and Drug Administration’s Education and Outreach Program Targeting School-Aged Children OBJECTIVE: The objective of the proposal is to demonstrate how Graduate School USA will provide year-round program support for FDA CFSAN’s educational outreach programs for school-aged children, using FDA-approved materials to convey food safety and nutrition message. The full-year program will include train-the-trainer programs; promotion of materials through advertisements, listservs and websites; and distribution of FDA materials at conferences and to classroom teachers and other educators. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Promotion of the Professional Development Program in Food Science, based on the Science and Our Food Supply curriculum, will be accomplished through print advertisements in educational publications; at educational conferences and participant- led workshops; through state and regional listserv notifications; and via the teachfoodscience.org website. The online application, located at teachfoodscience.org, is managed by Graduate School USA. Applications will be reviewed by master teachers/program facilitators; selection is based on a scoring rubric, resulting in selection of 37 educators with the highest scores being selected as summer 2016 participants. Those teachers are brought to Washington, DC, for a week-long, residential program that incorporates hands-on training at University of Maryland Microbiology labs, as well as in classroom training at Graduate School USA. Visits to the USDA Agricultural Farm and the FDA to discuss food safety and nutrition with their scientists is an integral component of the week. Summer participants teach components of the Science and Our Food Supply curriculum to their students in the fall; in December, the group reconvenes with the facilitators for a day-long training symposium at a regional NSTA Conference to review best practices and how modules fit within Science, Technology, Engineering Math (STEM) curriculum components, and to plan agendas for their mandatory train-the-trainer workshops, to take place before June 30, 2016. Ongoing support of the summer participants is provided by the Graduate School USA point of contact, and supplementary materials are forwarded to these teachers for their train-the- trainer workshops. Additional support is provided for teachers who make contact through websites, teacher-led workshops, and at educational conferences. FDA material orders are placed on a regular basis from teacher requests.