College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University

Space food

Greenlee School's Denise Vrchota works to develop new space curriculum initiative.
The whole notion of growing food in space and developing a new educational curriculum for faculty is exciting for Denise Vrchota, continuous adjunct assistant professor in the Greenlee School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

That idea also is exciting to Cheryll Reitmeier, associate professor of food science and human nutrition. In her role as education mission specialist for the NASA Food Technology Commercial Space Center (FTCSC), Reitmeier hopes to transform that excitement and enthusiasm about food science projects as they relate to NASA not only on the Iowa State campus, but also among other educators and high school students.

The challenge for NASA FTCSC is to develop new processes and products that will permit astronauts to feed themselves with a combination of foods prepared on Earth and food products from crops produced in space. Food systems must be developed for both short- and long-term missions, including potential year-long journeys to Mars.

"You just can't go to the store," Reitmeier said. "You have to take it with you."

Through a two-year, $100,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Higher Education Challenge Grant entitled "Space Challenge Grant," Reitmeier is attempting to encourage interest among students and educators at all levels. She conducts educational programs to promote NASA FTCSC’s projects through a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Higher Education Challenge Grant.

"We thought we could develop activities and lessons for high school students that relate food science issues to the space program," Reitmeier said.

To develop those activities and lessons, Reitmeier looked to Vrchota and Barbara Licklider, associate professor of educational leadership and policy studies and director of Project LEA/RN, a faculty learning program focused on enhanced student learning.

"Barb developed the lessons to be learning-centered and we worked with Denise to enhance the communication activities of the project," Reitmeier said.

Vrchota, who teaches interpersonal communication, professional communication and nonverbal communication in the Greenlee School, said the trio worked together to create a total learning activity.

She says that while the lesson content and how the lessons and activities are developed are important, teachers shouldn’t ignore the communication aspect of the project.

"Faculty don't necessarily think about learning or communicating in groups or teams," she said. "Teachers need to see other communication options.

"This is a total educational package," she continued. "Cheryll provides the content, while Barb is developing learning-centered lessons and I'm working on the communication aspects."

During the spring semester, 13 students from the Space Food Systems honors class will work with Vrchota, Reitmeier and Licklider to develop the lessons. In addition ten faculty members from the Colleges of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Veterinary Medicine, Agriculture, Education, and Family and Consumer Sciences will help design the lessons on a variety of topics.

The ultimate goal of the group is to place the lessons on a web page where high school teachers and university professors will have access to the information.

The lessons will include information on team as well as communication skills.

"We will observe and collect data to refine the lessons to meet the learning needs of the students," Licklider said.