Panther Valley teacher Julian Costa slid a black apron over his dress shirt and tie and started getting out essentials for his first class as his homeroom students filtered in on a crisp October morning.

Brown sugar, lemon, butter, cinnamon and nutmeg were among the items placed at student workstations and then he shifted to taking attendance before the morning announcements.

Costa wanted to make sure his students had what they needed to get right into cooking Cinnamon Apples, a warm, sweet treat they would serve up with some vanilla yogurt.

This was Panther Valley’s Food Production class, part of the Family and Consumer Science, formerly home economics, program which made a comeback in the district after a seven-year hiatus, Costa said.

The program provides high school students with knowledge and skills they’ll need in their daily lives, Superintendent Dave McAndrew said.

“The program teaches life skills such as nutrition, financial literacy, child development, and interpersonal communications,” he said.

“These skills are not only preparing the students for careers but also to be confident, capable, and compassionate people in every stage of life,” McAndrew said.

Well-rounded course

While real-life skills are taught, FCS differs from traditional home economics, which taught students how to manage their homes with skills like cooking and sewing, Costa said.

“That’s still part of it, but now it includes what you can do with that, as far as a potential career path and introducing skills that are applicable not only at home but at work,” he said.

One of the electives that launches in the spring is a child development course, which will look at caring for children and how children learn for students who may be interested in working in a day care or preschool, Costa said.

Other electives include Housing and Interior Design, Interpersonal Communication and Foundations of Family and Consumer Sciences, which is a high school survey course of the program designed to give students a little of everything, he said.

Eighth graders are also required to take an overview course in Family and Consumer Science as part of their specials rotation, which includes music, computers, physical education and career preparation, Costa said.

This course provides an introduction in a variety of FCS skills, including cooking, sewing, communications, drafting and caregiving, he said.

Costa recently attended a national conference organized by the American Association for Family and Consumer Sciences, where he was able to present on behalf of Panther Valley as well and share his experience with launching a program.

“I’m really appreciative that my district has given me the opportunity to launch this program,” he said, noting that this district and administration see the value in these classes, when not a lot of others do.

Food prep

As students filtered into his classroom, which was once used for shop classes, Costa instructed them to wash their hands and gather around the mirrored demonstration cart.

“Today, we’re going to be working with apples,” Costa said. “We have cinnamon, nutmeg. We also have brown sugar and vanilla extract. We’re making a kind of dessert.”

He reviewed the recipe with his students, explaining that they’ll be using and building on skills they’ve already learned, and got them rolling on slicing apples, warming their pans and melting butter.

A 42-minute minute class flies by when students are prepping and cooking, Costa said, overseeing the steps as he moved among the workstations set up with cutting boards and hot plates to cook.

Caleb Lockwitch and Prestin Murphy took turns prepping ingredients and tending the pan with sliced apples, butter, sugar and spices.

The course is helping Lockwitch better hone his cooking skills, as he already cooks with his father at home, he said.

“I wanted to learn how to prepare my food better and safe practices in the kitchen,” he said. “It’s a fun class.”

Murphy also wanted to learn how to cook better but also hopes the course will help in the future, possibly college, he said.

Young men made up about half the class that day, and Costa said FCS has shifted away from being female dominated as it was 30 and 40 years earlier.

“You see a lot of male students who realized they need to learn this stuff, too,” he said.

None of his food preparation students have expressed an interest in going into the food industry so far, Costa said.

“I think they’re realizing their own strengths,” he said. “It wouldn’t surprise me if they eventually said that they would be interested in that. I’ve had a few students say they want to go on to attend CCTI.”

Costa hopes that skills he’s teaching his students in the classroom and in the Family and Consumer Club, an after-school club launched last September, give them insight into careers as well as help in everyday life.

“If my students can leave any one of my classes feeling like they learned something,” Costa said. “Even if it’s just, ‘I know how to sew a button,’ or “Oh wow, I know what that seasoning is used for.’

“I’m proud of that,” Costa said. “That’s what I want. I’m not training chefs. I’m training people that they can go home and take care of themselves.”