A new college student may be a little leery of signing up for
a biology or accounting course. But what student wouldn’t warm
up to a class called Chocolate Science.

At the University of Georgia, food science professor Rob
Shewfelt
developed the chocolate class to entice students into the world
of food science. Actually a freshman seminar, the class meets
just one day a week, on Tuesdays, for one hour.

"Some freshman classes have as many as 300 students in
them, but freshman seminars are limited to the first 15 to sign
up," said Shewfelt, a professor in the UGA College of
Agricultural
and Environmental Sciences.

"We intentionally keep the classes small," he said,
"to permit one-on-one interaction with a senior faculty
member."

Surprisingly, there’s just one food science major on the class
role. Most of the students are business, biology or journalism
majors.

Finding A Topic That Turns Them
On

"Freshmen are so great to work with, because they are
genuinely interested in learning, particularly when you find a
topic, like chocolate, that turns them on," Shewfelt
said.

Chris Lady signed up for the class because he loves chocolate
and "it looked like an easy class." Teri Brady wanted
to learn about the inner and outer workings of the chocolate
world
and get to eat chocolate in class.

Both students will get what they expect from the class, and
more. The class is a pass/fail class where students are just
required
to attend and participate in order to pass.

And they do eat chocolate. During a recent class, the students
tasted all the current M&M chocolate candies and ranked them
according to the class’s favorites and least favorites.

"Every class, we taste at least three different types
of chocolate," Shewfelt said.

Chocolate motivates the students to sign up. But what’s
Shewfelt’s
motivation for teaching it?

Recruiting for Georgia’s Food
Industry

"Our state needs more food science graduates," he
said. "Virtually every food company in Georgia has one of
our graduates working for them and we need more graduates to meet
the food industry’s demands."

Shewfelt
hopes the chocolate class will persuade students to consider
becoming
food science majors or tell their friends, who might then
consider
food science as a major. Either way, the class is beneficial to
other majors, especially business students.

The class textbook is "Emperors of Chocolate," by
Joel Glenn Brenner. It details the long-standing rival between
the M&M Mars and Hershey companies.

"Using this book I can teach the students about business
issues such as marketing, corporate culture and consolidation,
as well as social issues such as child slavery in cocoa
harvesting,"
Shewfelt said.

"They learn there are many, many steps between harvesting
and packaging," he said. "And they learn about all of
the many ingredients that go into chocolate."

Shewfelt uses chocolate, too, to teach students the more
serious
aspects of food science:

* The complex steps required to manufacture food.

* The tests necessary to make sure chocolate is safe to
eat.

* Nutritional problems associated with overconsumption of
chocolate.

* And how new and unusual chocolate products are
developed.

"Teaching is a matter of connecting minds," Shewfelt
said. "I use chocolate to rouse their curiosity, which then
leads them to ask questions. While answering their questions,
I am able to teach them the basic principles."