Family Studies

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Connecting Study to Real Life What we offer:

Electives: a chance to explore and expand knowledge, skills and interests

Career Completers: A career completer is a sequence of courses designed to help students explore and develop skills in a specific field. Family Studies offers two completers: Child Development. (4 credits must be completed)

Child Development Completer Child Development/ERP I (required course) Child Development II ( required course) Decisions in Family Living Foods and Nutrition Child Development Internship, 1 or 2 credits

Courses Offered Child Development I/Education for Responsible Parenthood:

Education for Responsible Parenthood focuses on helping students develop the skills needed for successful parenting. A complete knowledge of child development principles and study of discipline and guidance techniques are a major emphasis. As a means of developing the skills needed for parenting, students plan and carry out activities in a child development lab for preschoolers. This one-credit course is a requirement for the Child Development career completer or may be taken as an elective. Honors credit is available.

Child Development II

This advanced course may be taken for honors credit and is a continuation of the study begun in Education for Responsible Parenthood. Developmental stages of toddlerhood, the school age child, and the special needs child are studied. Since this course is intended as a step towards a career related to children, learning theories and methods and materials of teaching young children are a heavy focus. Application of skills is continued in working in a Child Development Lab situation. This one credit course is a requirement for the Child Care Services career completer or may be taken as an elective.

Child Development Internship

This advanced course may be taken for one or two credits and is a continuation of the study in Education for Responsible Parenthood and Child Development as part of the Child Development Career Completer Program. Students discuss possible community sites for interning based on their career aspirations. When placed, students meet regularly with their instructor for seminar days, observations and assessment. Otherwise, the student leaves from one to two periods early to teach at a local day care or public school. Mentoring teachers at the site change quarterly in order to provide a wide range of experiences and skill development. Only those students who meet specific requirements are accepted into this special program. Honors credit.

Decisions in Family Living

The aim of this course is to prepare students to deal positively with the complexity and pluralism of contemporary family forms as well as to make critical decisions regarding their personal and family life. Important skill development includes communication, decision making, management, and problem solving. This course is a requirement for the Child Care Services and Human Services career completers or may be taken as an elective.

Intercultural Nutrition and Foods

Intercultural Nutrition and Foods is a half credit or one credit elective which focuses on the cuisines, cultures, and countries of the world. As each culture or country is studied, students explore the effect of climate, history, geography, technology, and lifestyle on the dietary practices of food preparation. Laboratory experiences provide opportunities to prepare and sample foods of each culture studied. This course is recommended as one of the electives for the Nutrition and Food Science Career Completer.

Nutrition and Foods I is a one credit course designed with the intent to provide students with skills to make intelligent decisions concerning food choices. Activities, including laboratory experiences, provide the opportunity to fully examine the nutritional, cultural, psychological, social, and ecological dimensions of eating habits. Nutrition and Foods I may be taken as an elective or as one of the required courses in the Nutrition and Foods Science Career Completer.

Child Development Lab

As part of the course work in Child Development I and II, Loch Raven runs a Child Development Lab for four year old children. The lab is in its twenty-sixth year and has gained recognition for its excellence. Parents may place an application on file as soon as a child is born. These are held on file until the spring prior to the year the child would enter the program. At that time, parents are contacted to establish interest and to schedule an interview. For more information and the opportunity to observe the lab in operation, please call 410-832-1978.

Nutrition and Foods: Students brought in supplies to make eighty cookie mix jars prepared as Christmas presents. These were sold to earn money that was donated to Our Daily Bread.

Child Development I and II: The Child Development Lab is a project recognized as a service to the community. Students extend their work to other projects that foster the development of children in homeless shelters, work on literacy and tutoring projects, adopt-a-family projects, etc.

For more information, call 410-832-1978 to obtain a brochure.