Family Consumer Sciences and Health Resources
Curriculum Resources and Program Development
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 Cynthia Arendt.
National Standards For Family Consumer Sciences Education
The National Association of State Administrators for Family and Consumer Sciences Education (NASAFACS), an affiliate of the Family and Consumer Sciences Education (FACS) Division of the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE), first began development of national standards for family and consumer sciences in May 1995. The project to develop national standards created an atmosphere that celebrated the variety that exists among state philosophies and blended multiple approaches to standards and educational delivery systems. The resulting work became a powerful tool for showcasing the movement from home economics, with an emphasis on technical homemaking skills, to Family and Consumer Sciences Education, with its focus on broader family and society issues, and provided significant new direction for the field.
In May 2005, NASAFACS initiated a project to update the national standards, utilizing a highly participatory process to collect recommendations from a wide variety of stakeholders. Over 1,000 reviewers, including FACS educators and subject matter specialists from all states along with representatives of external organizations, business and industry, agencies with direct connections, and other stakeholders, reviewed the National Standards and provided recommendations for the second edition.
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) 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.
- Personal Finance Competencies
- Missouri Personal Finance and Family and Consumer Resource Management Competencies
Additional Resources
- Family/Consumer Resource Management Competencies and Family Economics and Financial Education Curriculum Integration Chart
- Career and Family Leadership Lesson Plans
- Curriculum Resource Guides and Other Curriculum Development Resources
- Implementation Handbook for FCS
- Competency Profile Cards
- Nutrition and Wellness Resource Guide
Curriculum Resource Guide 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 online. 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. Call 800-392-7217 for additional information.
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.
Of particular interest are the "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.