3/6/02

Michael Tullier, 334/844-3419

WEB COURSE EXTENDS AUBURN CENTER'S RESEARCH EFFORTS TO STUDENTS

AUBURN -- Since 1999, Auburn University researchers in the Detection and Food Safety Center have combined food science, agricultural, microbiological, chemical and engineering principles in the development of bacteria-detecting "biosensors" capable of sensing foodborne pathogens, such as Salmonella and E. coli.

From their collaboration, the 13 researchers from five colleges have discovered, however, that a key problem in training students in food safety technologies is that the required knowledge outside the traditional boundaries of agricultural science, engineering and food science is lacking.

To bridge the gap between engineering and food science, William F. Gale, associate professor in the Materials Research and Education Center; and Donald E. Conner, chair of the Department of Poultry Science, developed a series of web-based course modules with funding from U.S. Department of Agriculture's Higher Education Challenge Grant Program.

The course modules, introduced last fall, were offered with elective enrollment open to seniors (and graduate students) in any science, engineering or technological discipline.

The course centered around the use of the latest in instructional technology to develop Internet and CD-based, self-paced multimedia coursework modules, which were supplemented by text-chat and videoconferencing help sessions. Students were organized in multidisciplinary teams to work together on a final engineering project focused on food safety.

"I think the key to making any multidisciplinary course successful is to provide opportunities for students to interact with each other," says Conner. "The team project component, for example, proved successful because team members had to rely on each other to approach the problem-solving aspects of the task at hand. Working together in this fashion to overcome individual strengths and weaknesses proved necessary throughout the course as a means of understanding basic principles."

Course modules were designed to guide students from the farm, through food processing, to the dinner table, focusing throughout on food safety. These modules were: "You are What You Eat," an introduction to the science of agriculture and food, aimed primarily at engineering and physical sciences students, but also targeted at biological sciences students far removed from agriculture; "The Big Cool Chicken," a discussion of the underlying physical science and practical engineering involved in the production of chilled poultry (and cooked food), aimed at agricultural and biological sciences students; and "Louis Pasteur and You," a discussion of food microbiology, focusing on poultry products, for engineering and physical science students.

Directing course modules at specific audiences helped ensure a continuity of understanding among students of the various academic disciplines enrolled in the course.

"No one person can be expected to be a specialist in all areas," Michael A. Davis, a doctoral student in poultry science and graduate teaching assistant for the course, said. "We looked at strengths and weaknesses of engineers and agriculturalists, as well as what each could bring to the table."

Gale and Conner will present results from the web course as a paper at the International Association for Food Protection 2002 Annual Meeting.

They have also submitted a second web-based course proposal to the USDA Higher Education Challenge Grant Program. The proposal, "Materials for Safer Foods," will examine the role of food-preparation surfaces in the microbiological hazards of food processing, and their modification through advanced materials engineering to produce safer foods. The course will address the study of food contamination through the attachment of bacteria -- primarily Listeria monocytogenes -- to food-contact and non-contact surfaces in the processing facility.

AUDFS, under the direction of materials engineering professor and chair Bryan A. Chin, includes 13 core researchers from five Auburn University colleges: Agriculture, Engineering, Human Sciences, Sciences and Mathematics, and Veterinary Medicine.

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