Family and Consumer Sciences Curriculum and Resources
The development of a local curriculum that helps students acquire critical thinking skills to solve everyday, practical problems is one of the most important processes in family and consumer sciences education program development. The curriculum is the basis for all program activities and operations.
Listed on this page are up-to-date resources and links to other resources that will assist Missouri family and consumer sciences educators in developing a local curriculum.
For more information related to Missouri family and consumer sciences education curriculum, contact Debbie Pohl.
Personal Finance Competencies
On October 6, 2005 the State Board of Education approved an increase in the minimum high school graduation standards that includes a required half-unit course in personal finance. The competencies for the approved course in personal finance have been developed and are available for to districts to use in guiding the personal finance course.
The competencies were developed by an advisory committee of business representatives; higher education officials; the Centers for Economics Education; and teachers from the areas of family and consumer sciences, business education, and social studies. Personnel from the Missouri Center for Career Education (MCCE- http://missouricareereducation.org/) assisted the Department in developing the competencies.
As a starting point, teachers reviewed the personal finance standards from the JumpStart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy. They also reviewed the recommended content standards and benchmarks from the Missouri Council on Economic Education's Towards Economic and Financial Literacy: A Final Report. If you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
All are PDF files
Curriculum Resource Guides and Other Development Resources
These guides and resources are available for purchase from the Instructional Materials Laboratory at the University of Missouri-Columbia. An on-line catalog and information can be found at: http://www.iml.missouri.edu.
Call toll-free in Missouri: 1-800-669-2465.
These guides and resources are also available on free loan to Missouri educators only from Resources @ MCCE located at Central Missouri State University - Warrensburg. An on-line directory and information can be found at: http://resources.mcce.org
Call toll-free in Missouri: 1-800-392-7217.
"Implementation Handbook for Family and Consumer Sciences, 2001": The Handbook contains information about designing an approved family and consumer sciences program; developing instruction and assessments that support the content, critical thinking, implementing the program and evaluating the program to determine strategies for improvement. Includes competency lists for all courses in the Missouri family and consumer sciences curriculum and cross-references to state and national standards. This document is a must for all Missouri family and consumer sciences educators.
Comprehensive Family and Consumer Sciences
"Exploring Family and Consumer Sciences-Enrichment Modules-1994": Four Missouri-developed instructional modules supporting the student competency areas outlined in the Missouri Exploratory Family and Consumer Sciences student competency list.
"Life Planning Resource Guide-1994": Ohio curriculum resource touching on many competency areas addressed in the Career and Family Leadership semester course. Includes leadership development, career planning, interpersonal relationships and managing work and family responsibilities. Incorporates the use of process skills to help students address content through practical reasoning and critical thinking.
Family and Human Development
"Child Development Care and Guidance (Advanced)-Using Process Skills and Content Modules that Feature Critical Thinking and Practical Problem-Solving Skills-1998":
Missouri-developed curriculum resource guide addressing an advanced level of instruction in the area of Child Development, Care and Guidance. Incorporates the use of process skills to help students address content through practical reasoning and critical thinking.
"Personal Development Resource Guide-1993": Ohio curriculum resource guide for teaching personal development. Incorporates the use of process skills to help students address content through practical reasoning and critical thinking.
"Family Relations Resource Guide-1995": Ohio curriculum resource guide for teaching family relations. Incorporates the use of process skills to help students address content through practical reasoning and critical thinking.
"Parenting Resource Guide-1995": Ohio curriculum resource guide focusing on parenting. Incorporates the use of process skills to help students address content through practical reasoning and critical thinking.
Nutrition and Wellness
"Family and Individual Health: Using Process Skills and Content Modules that Feature Critical Thinking and Practical Problem-Solving Activities-1999": Missouri curriculum resource guide to support instruction in the Family/Individual Health semester course. Incorporates the use of process skills to help students address content through practical reasoning and critical thinking.
"Food Science: Content Modules for Food Science Featuring Problem-Solving Activities in Family and Consumer Sciences-1998":
Missouri-developed resource guide for implementing food science into the family and consumer sciences curriculum.
Texas Curriculum Center for Family and Consumer Sciences
The 2002-2003 catalog of materials disseminated by the Texas Curriculum Center for Family and Consumer Sciences offers several materials of interest. Each of the printed materials have been developed and reviewed under the direction of the Texas Education Agency. You may access the catalog by visiting their website at www.hs.ttu.edu/ccfcs.
Of particular interest are the new "grow-your-own-teacher" courses Reaching to Teach. These are for the secondary classroom and are listed under teacher preparation. This is an effort to address the shortage of professionals in the field. For those of you with teacher cadet programs in your district, it is worth a look.
Resources for 17 comprehensive and technical courses that have been developed in the past 3 years are available by searching by content area. For example, you may search for Nutrition and Food Science and find all the resources related to that area of study.
New reference and activity books are also available for seven occupationally specific areas. These books have been developed over the past two years and have corresponding teaching curriculum guides that are being developed over a three-year period. Available this fall is the Food Production and the Child Care guides. These are found under the occupational category in the catalog.