Contents
01.12.2014.
Professional paper
Information literacy training in AgroParisTech food studies
AgroParisTech professors and librarians in Food Science and Technology have developed information literacy instruction to help students find and use relevant information. The course trains students to develop information literacy competencies: to identify the information needed and define its nature and extent; to access the information with efficiency because they select and use methods, resources and retrieval systems most appropriate to the topic; to evaluate the used methods, information, and sources; to search, access and use information ethically and legally; to read, use and write bibliographic references.AgroParisTech trains two kinds of students. For Higher Education students (engineering students), the training takes place at their arrival in AgroParisTech, including courses and practical classes: role and management of information in organizations; information on plagiarism; resources in environment, food science and technology; use of relevant tools and methods for searching in databases; reference writing.For students attending a Master of Science, the training prepares them to produce a literature review. The curriculum includes: information about scientific integrity, plagiarism; information needed for a researcher; critical reading of a journal article; how to manage a literature review: resources used, information search with databases, full text access; reference writing.The students will use these information literacy skills along their studies as well as in their future jobs.
Agnès Grimal, Florence Dubois-Brissonnet, Elisabeth Dumoulin
01.12.2014.
Professional paper
Teaching microbiological food safety through case studies
Higher education students usually ask for more training based on case studies. This was addressed by designing a specific food safety module (24 hours) in which students were shown how to predict microbiological risks in food products i.e. they were asked to determine product shelf-life according to product formulation, preservation methods and consumption habits using predictive microbiology tools. Working groups of four students first identified the main microbiological hazards associated with a specific product. To perform this task, they were given several documents including guides for good hygiene practices, reviews on microbiological hazards in the food sector, flow sheets, etc… After three-hours of work, the working groups prepared and gave an oral presentation in front of their classmates and professors. This raised comments and discussion that allowed students to adjust their conclusions before beginning the next step of their work. This second step consisted in the evaluation of the safety risk associated with the two major microbiological hazards of the product studied, using predictive microbiology. Students then attended a general lecture on the different tools of predictive microbiology and tutorials (6 hours) that made them familiar with the modelling of bacterial growth or inactivation. They applied these tools (9 hours) to predict the shelf-life of the studied product according to various scenarios of preservation (refrigeration, water activity, concentration of salt or acid, modified atmosphere, etc…) and/or consumption procedures (cooking). The module was concluded by oral presentations of each working group and included student evaluation (3 hours).
Florence Dubois-Brissonnet, Laurent Guillier, Murielle Naïtali
