The recent ACTE Conference and National Cluster Meeting in Washington DC highlighted many new opportunities for FCCLA and FCS teachers and students. One aspect is the new Competitive Events in FCCLA. These are opportunties like the Family and Consumer Sciences buzzer contest, t-shirt and poster contests and 65th Anniversary celebrations.
See the FCCLA website www.fcclainc.org for more details.

The ACTE conference in Nashville brought together many national leaders in career and technical education. The national coalition for family and consumer sciences education met and shared information about the trends in FCS education, the national data survey for participation of students and teachers in FCS educaiton. The website for the national coalition on www.facsecoalition.org.

To quote one national leader in FCS education; "You need to embrace career clusters. If you do not, you will be left behind."

One session was on Math in foods classes. In order to integrate math into career and technical classes, consider adding these Math components;
adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, fractions, rounding, estimating, ratios, percentages, conversions. These can be done in pricing menu item, ordering food, measuring ingredients, preparing food, serving food, storing food, processing money, tracking income and expenses.

Another session on Sustainability brought to mind that FCS classes can integrate components of sustaining the earth with content about waste, transportation, water resources, food supply, and consumption. A good resource would be to show the film The 11th Hour. Sustainability is becoming a new 21st century skill.
Check out the US partnership for U.S. Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development (www.uspartnership.org.
How does FCS education relate to sustainability?
FCE standard 3.0 Consumer services:
2.5 Analyze relationships between the economic system and consumer actions.
3.1.4 Analyze the effects of the consumer service industry on local, state, national, and global economies.
Area of Study 5.0 Facilities Management and Maintenance

Area of study: 7.0 Family and Community Services
7.1.4 Analyze the effects of family and community service occupations on local, state, national, and global economies.
Area of Study: 16.0 Textiles, Fashion and Apparel.
16.1.4 Analyze the effects of textiles and apparel occupations on local, state, national, and global economies.
These are just a few areas of family and consumer scienecs standards where sustainability can play an important role.
Recently FCCLA has added the STAR Event "Environmental Ambassador" as well as "Recycle and Redesign" which are geared to allow members to investigate and take action to save resources. ILlustrated Talks could also be about sustainability and Community Service projects could be developed to save resources, do community projects for reducing the carbon footprint, educating peers and cleaning up the environment. It is estimated that many new careers will involve sustainability or green type of jobs.