Minor in Family & Consumer Sciences Teaching
The Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) Education minor prepares future educators to support individuals and families as they navigate the practical challenges of everyday life in a diverse, global society. Through interdisciplinary coursework, students gain foundational knowledge across key FCS content areas—including nutrition and culinary arts, child and human development, financial literacy, housing and fashion design, and related fields. Designed as a complementary endorsement, the FCS Education minor enhances an initial teaching endorsement by expanding educators’ capacity to teach applied, life-centered content that supports student well-being, decision-making, and life management within the context of families, communities, and everyday systems. The minor is accessible and relevant to students across all education majors and supports flexible integration into a wide range of teaching contexts.
Program Learning Outcomes
- Content: Candidates understand the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structures of the disciplines and can create standards‐based learning experiences that make these aspects of subjects or content knowledge meaningful for students.
- Diversity: Candidates create learning environments that allow ALL students to be socially and academically successful, by validating students’ cultural heritages, integrating their life experiences, and promoting their overall development. Candidates demonstrate knowledge, skills, and dispositions to address the instructional responsibilities needed to integrate Indian Education for All across the curriculum in a culturally responsive manner.
- Pedagogy: Candidates understand and use a variety of instructional strategies to foster students’ motivation for learning and encourage the development of students’ conceptual understandings and performance/work force skills. Candidates use knowledge of effective communication techniques and make appropriate use of educational technology to support planning, instruction, and student learning.
- Assessment: Candidates understand and demonstrate use of formal and informal assessment strategies and tools to direct planning of instruction for the continuous intellectual, social and physical development of all learners. This ongoing practice includes pre‐, formative and summative analysis of student learning, individually, in groups, and in whole class settings. Candidates plan lessons and instructional sequences are based upon knowledge of subject matter, standards, learning outcomes, students, and the community.
- Professionalism: Candidates demonstrate the ability to reflect on classroom decision‐making with regard to content, diversity, pedagogy and assessment in order to improve teaching and learning. Candidates are reflective practitioners that examine their own biases and endeavor to provide equitable educational opportunities for students. Candidates demonstrate an understanding that education happens in a context and develop effective relationships with family and community members.
A student must receive a grade of C or better in all the courses required for this minor and have a GPA of 3.00 or higher.
| EDM 412 | Methods: 5-12 Family Consumer Science | 3 |
| HDFS 101IS | Indiv and Fam Dev: Lifespan | 3 |
| HDFS 237 | Managing Work and Family | 3 |
| HDFS 263 | Relationships and Family Systems | 3 |
| HDFS 450 | Curric Dev in FCS Education | 3 |
| Choose one of the following: | 3 | |
| Design, Fashion, and Textiles (i) | ||
or HDFS 334 | Contemporary Housing Topics | |
or HDFS 419 | STEAM: Clothing & Textiles Instruction in FCS | |
| NUTR 221CS | Basic Human Nutrition | 3 |
| NUTR 226 | Food Fundamentals | 3 |
| NUTR 227 | Food Fundamentals Lab | 2 |
| Total Credits | 26 | |