Explore cultural, health, and justice dimensions of food in this interdisciplinary guided class.
| Age Range | 13-18 |
| Class Type | Guided |
| Start / End Dates | January 23 - April 7, 2023 (Spring Break: March 20 - 26) |
| Class Size | 2-10 Learners |
Pricing Information
| Basic Enrollment | $100 Per Student |
| Class + Project Add-on | $140 Per Student |
| 2 Siblings (discounted) | $180 For Two |
Food: Culture, Health, and Justice (Guided) Class Overview
Food is a universal human experience: everybody eats. Food is a way for us to connect across generations, locations, and societies. But every culture and community prepares, serves, and values food in different ways. By studying and discussing food, we can understand much about people, their values, and their traditions.
This course will explore food as a human experience, as tradition, as healthy/unhealthy, as a way that societies promote or undermine justice. We will connect food to personal values, historical events, ethics about animals and the environment, and laws and policies.
As a guided course, there will be no live group meetings. Instead, you will have some flexibility about when to do class activities and will communicate with the instructor asynchronously (such as by email or Discord). Assignments will open at the start of the week (on Monday morning) and close at the end of the week (Sunday evening).
If you would like to do a project based on a topic in this course (recommended for college prep especially), you may sign up for a project add-on to the basic enrollment to receive guidance and feedback from the instructor.
Time Commitment
Learners can expect to spend between 2-4 hours per week on reading and activities for this course. Time spent can vary depending on reading speed, organization, and scope of participation in activities (some of which are open to participant definition).
Reading load will be between 20-40 pages per week of informative material, mostly essays and journalistic articles, with some optional material including academic and expert articles and resources.
Reminder: as a Guided Class, there are no weekly live meetings.
Class Schedule
Week # | Week starting | Topic |
Week 1 | January 23 | Introduction, What do I eat? |
Week 2 | January 30 | Culture: Food Similarities |
Week 3 | February 6 | Culture: Food Differences |
Week 4 | February 13 | Healthy vs Unhealthy Foods: Part 1 |
Week 5 | February 20 | Healthy vs Unhealthy Foods: Part 2 |
Week 6 | February 27 | Justice: Food Insecurity |
Week 7 | March 6 | Justice: Food Production |
Week 8 | March 13 | Food Problems: Part 1 |
Spring Break | March 20 | |
Week 9 | March 27 | Food Problems: Part 2 |
Week 10 | April 3 | Conclusion and Wrap-up |
Course Credit Information
This course is worth approximately 40 instructional hours and covers topics in social science/policy, food history, health/food science, and ethics.
Please contact the instructor before the class begins if you want to request evaluation (grade, completion certificate, etc).
Skills Needed
- Read a non-fiction book
- Basic thinking and questioning skills
- Basic analysis: connect book information to similar situations
- Basic research: look up information (online or hard copy resources)
- Create basic deliverable: communicate in a tangible way that can be evaluated (text, audio/video recording, slide presentation, etc.)
- Self-management: plan or take initiative (with parent/guardian assistance) in lesson progress
- Communication: ask for help / interaction when needed
- Relativistic thinking: able to respect that different people have different values
Skills Gained
- Read an informative book
- Recall and remember key points
- Ask inquisitive questions before and after reading
- Cross-reference information and data
- Utilize resources to find out more information (research skills)
- Explore ethical and moral issues related to food
- Self-reflect on one’s own culture and food practices
- Perspective taking while learning about other people’s food practices
- Understand relationship of cultural values to individual choices
- Understand historical and social context of foods
- Use critical thinking skills to self-reflect on biases and assumptions
- Use an interdisciplinary approach to approach complex issues
- (with project add-on) Design and produce a project fulfilling a learning goal of you choosing
Individual Support
Families and learners are welcome to share any information about learning support needs to assist instructor with accommodations.
You will need
- A computer with internet access (for downloading / accessing resources)
- A program or application to produce deliverables (word processor like Google Docs, recording software if making audio files, etc.)
- A consistent communication method for asynchronous communication with instructor (email or Discord)
- A PDF reader program
- Camera and microphone for Zoom interaction with instructor (optional)
Textbook
We will use this text throughout the course. You can obtain this in print or ebook format:
You and I Eat the Same by Chris Ying, René Redzepi, MAD
Supplementary articles and other materials will be provided as links to web content or PDFs.
Dr. Sabrina Weiss
Dr. Sabrina Weiss specializes in developing theoretical models that represent the ethical and social dimensions of issues at the intersection of science, technology, and society.
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