In the 11+ years since Chilled Education began, it has continually evolved to meet the changing needs of teachers, students and anyone involved in getting more young people interested in food science and careers in the chilled food industry.
In the early years it was about the free lesson plans. Designed by science and food science teachers for fellow teachers, they cover everything from hygiene and taste to microorganisms, for Key Stages 1-4. Alongside this, CEd developed innovative resources including the MicroTrumps top trumps game which have also proved useful and informative to other colleagues, including Environmental Health Officers and Government scientists.
Chilled Education also took its resources, and its experts, on the road. The team were joined by colleagues from CFA member companies, happily sharing their knowledge and first-hand industry experience with curious young scientists and interested teachers at science and careers fairs. Those experiences are also shared on the Chilled Education website which has many real-life career path insights and case studies from people at all stages of their chilled food careers. For a while, COVID-19 brought face-to-face events to a halt and closed schools. So, like many organisations, CEd pivoted!
CFA Operations Manager Charlotte Patrick picks up the story: “We wanted to continue to support science teaching in a fun and accessible way that could be done at home. So we developed our Store Cupboard Science experiments. I enlisted my two young scientists to demonstrate our ideas in photos and videos which helped make them understandable and relatable. The girls had fun and were inspired to do more. We realised we had a winning formula, using everyday items and ingredients to explore the science of food – from DNA in strawberries to exploding cola. Now we have more than 70 experiments on our website – and we’re developing more all the time.”
A full list of all the Chilled Education lesson plans and Store Cupboard Science experiments, with their links, can be found on the Chilled Education website
April 2023