Valerie Dechene will be the first to tell you Family and Consumer Sciences (FACS) is much more than "stitching and stirring."

She values teaching her students at Tamarac Middle School in Rensselaer County how to eat nutritious foods and to create from cloth. Yet, she and her colleagues also know their students will need more than that to make their way in the world.

That is why the middle-level FACS curriculum, called Home and Career Skills, is designed to help students live in a society of constant change and to prepare them to meet their present and future responsibilities as consumers, community members, home managers and wage earners. 

It includes Internet safety, researching careers, financial management, community involvement, college information and job shadowing. Through laboratory settings and hands-on instruction, students are able to acquire and then demonstrate communication skills, critical and creative thinking, and leadership and management skills that can be applied at home, in school, in the community and, later, in the workplace.

"We teach life skills. They are going to use them until the day they die," said Diane Babin, a FACS teacher and member of the Schalmont Teachers Association in Schenectady County.

The program supports academic standards in English language arts, math, science and technology and, social studies:

• Read, Write, Listen, and Speak for critical analysis and evaluation to make informed consumer decisions.
• Using ratios and proportions when cooking, sewing, and designing.
• Understanding the principles of economic decision-making and how they are both producers and consumers of goods and services.
• Understanding the importance of major nutrients, vitamins, and minerals in maintaining health

Students are constantly presented with learning opportunities within the context of real-life situations, Babin said.

In mid-March, some of Dechene's students gave PowerPoint presentations on careers they had researched and assessed, ranging from dairy farming to the qualifications necessary to become a judge.

"Choosing the right job impacts everything," Babin said. FACS students examine their values, personalities, interests and goals in considering careers.

Students also learn to manage money, handle a checking account and set up a household budget — all core applications of math skills. Over the course of mandated middle-level FACS classes, they also participate in entrepreneurial projects and learn the basics of business.

"From teaching life skills that assist you in the transition to college or work to knowing the importance of a healthy lifestyle, FACS teachers provide tremendous value to students," said NYSUT Vice President Kathleen Donahue, who taught extensively at the middle level.

"Family and Consumer Sciences enable a student to apply what they learn in their academic classes to real-world situations. It supports science and health curricula," said NYSUT Vice President Maria Neira, whose office oversees curriculum issues for the union.

To prepare for instruction, teachers complete purchase orders, and shop for fabric or for the groceries needed for recipes that pounce on proteins, vegetables and fiber.

Students are taught the elements of good nutrition so they can plan appropriate diets for themselves and others, said Dechene, a member of the Brittonkill Teachers Association.

Kitchen work includes lessons on safety and sanitation, using tools and technologies appropriately, studying the food pyramid and applying math and science skills to understand how ingredients, properly measured or weighed, react together during the cooking process.

One day, chunks of ice crunched and whirred in the blender as Dechene taught her students how to make drinks using juice and fruit.

"I'm pushing these for kids who say, 'I don't have time for breakfast,' she said.

Dechene taught sewing in another class, helping students make an overcast stitch and dart. They learn to follow step-by-step directions and patterns that require them to calculate measurements.

"I can't get the snout to go on!" a student said, holding a noseless polar bear of white fleece and dangling a needle.

Dechene pulled out the pattern and showed the student where she had missed a step. 

Community service is also a staid component of FACS. Puppies made of blue cloth and crafted by students at home were destined for a hospital. They made dog biscuits to raise money for a humane society and cooked soup for a homeless shelter. They brought cookies to a nursing home and a center for disabled workers.

They've made pet beds for the Animal Protective Foundation, teddy bears for hospitalized children and first responders, and fleece hats and scarves for the Salvation Army.