Course Syllabus
Teacher: Salvatore Prevosto
Room: the FACS room
Contact: salvatoreprevosto@gmail.com (see the About page on the course website)
Course length: Full year, every day, one 40-minute period
Credit: New York State requires 1 3/4 units of career and technical education in middle school (Commissioner's Regulation 100.4). This course counts toward that. It covers what districts used to call Home and Career Skills, and more.
What this class is
Family and Consumer Sciences is the class where you learn to run your own life. You will cook real food in a real kitchen. You will sew something you can use. You will build a budget and invest in a pretend stock market. You will design a room and plan meals for a family. You will learn to take care of a younger child safely. You will pitch a business idea to a panel of judges. Every unit ends with something you made.
I teach this class because these are the skills I wish someone had handed me at 12. I spent years in business, finance, and hotels and restaurants before I became a teacher. I use all of it here.
What we will do this year
| When | Unit | You will |
|---|---|---|
| September | Welcome to the FACS Room | Learn how the room works, make decisions as a team, and sign the Room and Lab Agreement |
| September to October | Kitchen Skills and Smart Eating | Pass the safety exam, learn the tools, measure, read recipes, cook two labs, read food labels, shop from a real store ad, and feed a family of four on $40 |
| November to December | Me, My Goals, My Money | Find your strengths, set goals, build a budget, learn how paychecks, credit, and interest work, invest in the Gilded Age Market, and explore careers |
| January to February | Growing Up, Getting Along | Learn how people grow, handle stress and peer pressure, talk things out and settle conflicts, learn about families, and build a babysitter's activity kit |
| February to March | Spaces We Live In | Make a home safer and greener, learn the basic rules of design, mix color, draw a floor plan to scale, and design and build a room model |
| March to May | Make It, Mend It, Wear It | Learn fibers and care labels, sew by hand, fix a hem and a button, make a pouch or bag, shop smart for clothes, and upcycle something old into something new |
| May to June | From Farm to Table | Trace where food comes from, measure our food waste, cook in four kitchens at once, and plan and price a meal for the whole class |
| June | Launch | Write a resume, practice job interviews, and pitch (present) a product or service to judges in FACS Shark Tank |
The Gilded Age Market is a game we play on paper. It is 1870 and you have $1,000. The prices follow what really happened to railroads, oil, electricity, steel, cars, and radio, up through the crash of 1929.
What you need
- A folder that stays in the room (I provide it)
- Something to write with
- Closed-toe shoes on lab days (I will tell you the day before)
- Hair tied back on lab days
- An open mind about trying new foods. You never have to eat anything. You do have to cook it.
There is no textbook. Everything you need is on the course website and in the room.
How you are graded
| Category | Weight |
|---|---|
| Labs and projects | 40 percent |
| Topic quizzes and performance checks | 25 percent |
| Daily work (do nows, handouts, exit cards) | 20 percent |
| Participation and safety | 15 percent |
Labs and projects are scored with a rubric (a scoring chart) you see before you start. You can retake any quiz once after a review. If you miss a lab, you do a written make-up instead, so you do not lose points for being absent. Late work is accepted. The grading plan on the website has the details.
You cannot cook until you pass the Kitchen Safety Exam. You can retake it as many times as you need.
How the room works
- The do now is on the board when you walk in. Sit down, start writing.
- In a lab, everyone has a role card. Do your role. Then help.
- When you hear the reset cue (lights, countdown, hands empty), stop, look, listen.
- Clean up is part of the lab. Nobody leaves until the station passes the check.
- Phones stay put away unless I say otherwise. Some lessons use them.
- We talk about food, bodies, families, and money in this class. Be respectful. Nobody has to share anything personal.
The full Room and Lab Agreement is the first thing we read and sign together.
Food allergies and food rules
Tell me on the first day, in writing, about any allergy or food rule (religious, medical, or family). The sign and return page has a place for it. I plan every lab around what is on that list. Recipes are posted a week ahead so you and your family can check them. No lab requires you to eat.
Language support
If English is not your first language, you will get vocabulary cards and sentence starters in your language for every unit. Right now I have Spanish; ask me for others. Every lab has picture step cards. Slides are posted for everyone.
Technology and AI
We use a few web tools in class. The course website, lifeskillsarcade.com, has short review games for every unit. I may give you a username like facs-6a-17 and a PIN. Then your best score on each game counts on our class leaderboard. The site never stores your name.
You may use AI tools to brainstorm, check your work, or translate. You may not use them to do a project for you. In this class most of the work is something you cook, sew, build, or say out loud, so AI would not help anyway. If you use AI for a written piece, say so at the bottom.
Cost
Nothing. The school covers lab food and materials. If you want to bring in an ingredient for a project, ask first.
A note for families
FACS is the class where your child learns to cook, sew, budget, and plan. Ask them what they made this week. If you have a skill you would share (a recipe, a craft, a job you could talk about for ten minutes), email me. I would love to have you visit.
Standards
This course is aligned to the New York State Middle Level CTE Family and Consumer Sciences framework (six content modules and six CTE theme modules), the NYS Learning Standards for Family and Consumer Sciences (Intermediate), the NYS Career Development and Occupational Studies standards, and the National Standards for Family and Consumer Sciences Education 3.0. Every unit and lesson on the course website names the exact standard lines it teaches.
Please sign and return the last page.
Sign and return
We have read the syllabus for Family and Consumer Sciences, grades 6 to 8. We read how the room works, how grades work, and the food rules.
Student name (print): ______________________________ Period: ______
Student signature: ______________________________ Date: ______
Family member name (print): ______________________________
Family member signature: ______________________________ Date: ______
Best phone or email to reach a family member: ______________________________
Food allergies or food rules the teacher should know about (religious, medical, or family). Write "none" if there are none.
Allergy or rule: ______________________________________________
Allergy or rule: ______________________________________________
Optional: a skill, recipe, craft, or job a family member could share with the class for ten minutes: ______________________________