U of I ‘base camp’ workshops sharpening FCS teachers’ skills
Margaret Ritchie School of Family and Consumer Sciences expands popular program to cover new disciplines
BY John O’Connell
Photos by Katie Miner and Chelsey Lewallen
October 24, 2025
University of Idaho’s Margaret Ritchie School of Family and Consumer Sciences added early childhood content to a summer program providing training workshops for family and consumer sciences (FCS) teachers, with plans to further expand program offerings heading forward.
FCS Base Camp brings FCS high school teachers from throughout Idaho and surrounding states to U of I’s Moscow campus to hone their skills, learn the latest trends and earn professional development credits.
History of base camps
The school’s apparel, textiles and design (ATD) program hosted the first base camp several years ago. The school launched a separate Culinary Base Camp in 2022. In the summer of 2025, the school combined the two base camps into a single event spanning from June 23-27, also adding a full day of early childhood workshops, requested by past participants.
“The idea was to help get content to our FCS teachers in Idaho and neighboring states that either need to sharpen their skills or develop new skills,” said Clinical Assistant Professor Katie Miner, head of the FCS Base Camp planning committee. “We have a lot of teachers who don’t necessarily have a strong background in every single area.”
Associate Professor Ling-Ling Tsao and Senior Instructor Sara Matthews developed the early childhood curriculum and facilitated the new workshops.
FCS teachers can take continuing education courses at certain professional conferences, but Miner is unaware of any similar workshops for FCS teachers offered by other regional universities.
“We have participants who come every year who say, ‘We need this program. I don’t know what we’d do if you didn’t provide this,’” Miner said. “I’ve had people come from neighboring states tell me, ‘I’ve looked everywhere, and this is the only thing I can find that I can get to.’”
Partnerships
The Home Baking Association, which is dedicated to growing the practice of home baking, provided an instructor to lead a two-day, intensive baking class, sponsored by the Idaho Wheat Commission, as part of the culinary workshops. Participating teachers left with the full curriculum to teach a baking lab upon returning to their classrooms.
“I would like to explore more partnerships like that where we can bring in experts and also partner with some of the growers in agriculture across the state,” Miner said.
We have participants who come every year who say, ‘We need this program. I don’t know what we’d do if you didn’t provide this.’
Katie Miner
Clinical assistant professor and head of the FCS Base Camp planning committee
Evolving program
Miner hopes to add a financial management workshop to the next FCS Base Camp.
Fifteen FCS teachers registered for one or more sessions of the June 2025 Base Camp.
Organizing the event is labor intensive, and Miner anticipates planners will switch to hosting it in alternating years, with the next in-person base camp anticipated in June of 2027.
Planners have also discussed having virtual base camps during off years. The school offered a virtual ATD Base Camp during the COVID-19 pandemic and discovered the program is in demand nationwide.
“They drew people from throughout the country, and we’ve talked about doing a hybrid model or Zoom every other year to broaden the scope,” Miner said.