1 Simple FCS Food Lab Reflection Feedback to Yield Big Results

Whether you teach junior high or high school Family and Consumer Science students, it is likely you’ve heard a complaint or two about a cooking lab.

Maybe they don’t like an ingredient?

Maybe the recipe doesn’t seem appetizing?

Possibly they’ve developed a new “allergy” and can’t seem to participate.

Let’s not forget those students who originally thought a recipe was going to be awful, did try a bite at the end of the completed lab, and loved it!

Or the students who let you know they have been repeating the food labs at home and feel like a master in the kitchen now.

Either way, it is fair to accept as FCS teachers, we will never meet the expectations of every single cook in training while in our kitchens. Our ultimate goal is to introduce Family and Consumer Science students to new cooking techniques, new foods, and new experiences in the kitchen.

That’s why an overall cooking lab feedback reflection page is a great idea!

Keep in mind this is an end of all cooking labs reflection as opposed to an after lab reflection. Each one of my lab plans has a reflection page about the specific lab. Both are important in my mind and my students reflect the day after the lab, but then again overall after all labs are complete.

Cooking lab reflection

Feedback can be difficult to accept, but is powerful for both our students and for us. Some labs are a bust. Occasionally a lab might need a tweak to two. Maybe a student has a great, budget-friendly, fit-in-your-timeframe idea. And without a doubt, there will be a Debbie Downer or two who didn’t sign up for your class or made for one long semester.

Before offering the feedback form

Feedback reflection forms are powerful! Will you like all of the information? Likely, not! Some years or classes are plain tough. If you’ve taught long enough, you know there are good, better, and the best, but there are also hard, harder, and the hardest groups. Know your audience before handing out a feedback reflection form. If it’s one of your hardest groups, it might not be worth the energy and that’s perfectly fine.

That’s not to say you don’t want positive and negative feedback. It takes both positive and negative feedback to help drive changes.

Give explicit and clear directions to students. While these students will not likely repeat the same class with the same cooking labs, you need to see constructive criticism to warrant big changes.

Constructive criticism needs measurable or actionable steps to make changes. Let students know this information. Demonstrate what type of constructive criticism you would like to see in the feedback.

“I don’t like zucchini” doesn’t give me a direction to make changes, but “I didn’t think our zucchini slices had much flavor. If I tried it again, I would cook it longer and add more seasoning.”

Wait, what? My students don’t reflect and write sentences like that.

They don’t write sentences like that if they haven’t been expected to write sentences like that.

Change the expectations

In my cooking lab units, I have students work on reflection pages after each lab.

Why? Well, I was an English teacher before a FACS teacher and I know writing needs to cross into all areas. And also because reflections are vital for our students who spend so much time on the next thing rather than taking a little time to think of what worked, what didn’t work, and how to be better next time.

When I have students reflect, I make sure to clearly state expectations. I need to see complete sentences. In those complete sentences, I want to see accountability and thorough thoughts.

Does it happen for all students the first or second time? Nope.

Sometimes it’s several labs worth of reflections. I also don’t allow full points on a reflection without complete sentences and thorough reflections.

The results are in

Set the negative ones aside if the feedback doesn’t offer suggestions and only states complaints. In fact, don’t just set it aside, toss it in the trash. Read them if you want, but don’t let that get you down.

Focus on the feedback that offers suggestions and specifics. Find the small things you could add to a new lab. Sometimes our students see it from a different lens and offer a great suggestion.

A range of culinary arts

Some FCS or culinary arts classes have daily food labs. Some cook a couple of times a week. Others have a minuscule and some could make your eggs bug out from the giant budget.

YOU CANNOT COMPARE.

Focus on what resources you have and what you can create within those boundaries.

When looking at how you might change future labs, consider your budget and time frame.

The motto I use when deciding what my students will cook is “Food should look good, food should taste good, and food should make you feel good”.

When students claim they don’t like zucchini before our Zucchini Pizza Bites cooking lab and whine and complain about why we can’t make real pizza, I remind them of this motto. It is easy to make junkier foods, but why not find a newer, healthier spin on the food they love? The feedback I’ve received in reflections is to have garlic salt as an option as well as additional spices. Some mentioned other toppings besides pepperoni and olives. One even mentioned making our own marinara instead of store-bought. All of those are valuable and easy-to-consider suggestions. Garlic salt is under $2 per kitchen.

Another great suggestion that I will take into consideration is several students suggested a pasta and sauce lab instead of a second egg lab. That’s an easy enough suggestion to implement and one I hadn’t really considered before.

Surprisingly, some of my squirrel-est kids suggested being more strict on kitchens. I teach cross-contact and cross-contamination, but I also call it cross-kitchen if they cross over into another kitchen’s space. They want me to be more strict on cross-kitchen! This is one of those surprising pieces of feedback.

Let’s recap

Reflections are an essential way to grow and change our course. Sometimes it’s necessary for our budget, allergies, or suggestions. Often times it gives us a pulse of what students liked and will recreate at home. Give the food lab reflection feedback form a try after you’ve finished all of your labs.