Photo courtesy of the MIFFLIN COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT
Senior pupil Leah Kanagy prepares half of a hen for cooking on the Mifflin County Academy of Science and Technology in Lewistown. The students raised the chickens on-site in Animal Science then used the meat for his or her remaining challenge.
LEWISTOWN — A brand new type of lab is reshaping how students take into consideration agriculture — and it doesn’t seem like a farm. Inside the Mifflin County Academy of Science and Technology in Lewistown, students are stepping right into a rising subject the place food security, science, and innovation meet.
When Agricultural Sciences teacher Nicolette Cusate arrived on the Academy within the fall of 2023, she noticed a niche — and a chance.
Students understood how food was grown, however far fewer understood what occurs after harvest: the science, security and techniques that transfer food from subject to fork. Cusate got down to change that by introducing food science as a core a part of this system.
What began as an concept shortly developed right into a full-scale initiative.
With enter from the Agricultural Sciences Occupational Advisory Board, Cusate pursued specialised coaching by the Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education Food Science and Safety program. Over the course of an intensive skilled improvement institute, she labored by a complete year-long curriculum, making ready to deliver hands-on, industry-relevant classes into the classroom.
At the identical time, the college started remodeling a conventional classroom right into a practical food science lab. Maintenance workers put in tools designed to fulfill each tutorial wants and real-world security requirements, with extra upgrades — together with chrome steel prep tables and a three-basin sink — on the best way.
The result’s an area that mirrors fashionable food processing environments and introduces students to considered one of agriculture’s fastest-evolving sectors.
“This lab gives our students early exposure to one of the most innovative and in-demand areas of agriculture,” mentioned Academy Administrative Director Laura Hicks. “It strengthens their technical skills while helping them see clear connections between their education and local career opportunities.”
That connection is already taking maintain.
Inside the lab, students aren’t merely cooking — they’re investigating. They check fats content material in meals, analyze contamination dangers and design security protocols used throughout the food {industry}. The work is equal components science experiment and real-world coaching.
For sophomore Ava Neff, the expertise has been eye-opening.
“At first, I thought food science was like culinary, and we would just be cooking and eating,” she mentioned. “I didn’t realize we would be testing things, drawing fat out of foods, and learning how to handle food safely.”
One of her most memorable labs concerned creating and executing a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points plan. The project required precision as Neff ready a sandwich, her classmates noticed intently, making certain each step adopted strict security pointers.
“I learned all of the steps people working in the food industry need to follow to make sure consumers are safe,” she mentioned. “There’s a lot more to it than people think.”
That shift in understanding is precisely what Cusate hoped to encourage.
“This year, I taught the first level of the Food Science and Safety curriculum, and the reception from students was remarkable,” she mentioned. “They were asking questions and beginning to think critically –not just about where food comes from, but how it’s processed and how it gets to the shelves.”
Those classes lengthen far past the lab itself. Students are exploring food advertising, client conduct and the broader significance of agricultural literacy. They are studying to make connections between science, {industry} practices, and on a regular basis choices.
For sophomore Chloe Fisher, one of the crucial significant milestones got here on the finish of the course: incomes her ServSafe Food Handler Certification.
“Earning the certification was my favorite part,” she mentioned. “It gave me a sense of accomplishment and really got me interested in learning more about food science.”
The certification covers important {industry} requirements, together with private hygiene, time and temperature management, allergens, cross-contamination and sanitation. For students, it serves as each a confidence enhance and a credential with actual workforce worth.
Programs like this mirror a broader transformation inside agriculture itself. Today’s agricultural panorama extends far past planting and harvesting–it contains subtle techniques of processing, high quality management, distribution and regulation. Food science performs a central position in making certain that food will not be solely obtainable, however protected, constant and reliable.
By bringing that actuality into the classroom, the Academy is making ready students for careers which might be each native and world in scope.
But even for students who pursue completely different paths, the impression stays significant.
“Adding food science to our program was a great decision,” Cusate mentioned. “It helps students realize that our local, national and global food system is detailed and complex.”
That understanding carries into on a regular basis life. Whether students go into agriculture, enterprise, healthcare or one other subject totally, they are going to all work together with the food system. They will store, prepare dinner, learn labels and make choices that have an effect on their well being and their communities.
With this program, these choices are not made blindly.
This modern classroom has grow to be one thing rather more than a lab. It is a spot the place science meets every day life, the place curiosity turns into talent and the place students start to see food not simply as one thing they eat — however one thing they’ll perceive, query and even assist form.
And for a lot of of them, that realization is just the start.