Linking Science and Social Issues

The Food for Thought cluster focuses on developing the student as an informed consumer of food by providing a platform for discussion of what we eat, why we eat, where our food comes from and its journey from production to consumption, and how food affects our bodies and health. Linking science and social issues is completed in a variety of ways.

Cluster Completion. Students participate in the cluster by completing three courses from three different disciplines of which there is at least one science and at least one social science. The social and scientific context is inherently linked as the students approach a common issue from three different disciplinary views.

Cluster Projects.In the semester in which a student is enrolled in a cluster course, he/she participates in an integrated, multidisciplinary project with students from other cluster courses. The students must learn how the information/knowledge from one discipline relates to others in order to successfully complete the project. Through this process, natural science students learn about social science and social science students learn about natural science. This is the major component of linking the science and social issues.

SENCERized Chemistry Course. One of the science courses offered is a SENCERized chemistry course specifically designed for nonscience majors. Live, Learn and Eat: The Food of Chemistry was designed to engage and educate students in the classroom by teaching science through the civically-engaging topic of food. The Food of Chemistry is a fully-integrated lecture and laboratory course that incorporates chemistry content and experimentation with food and food-related issues by tying the relevance of fundamental chemical principles to the topics of food and cooking.

Cluster Projects:

Harvest Bounty Shared Meal (Fall Semester)

Context. The Harvest Bounty Shared Meal project involves students from multiple disciplines working together to prepare and share a meal. The project highlights the main mission of the cluster - to develop the student as an informed consumer of food by providing a platform for discussion of what we eat, why we eat, where our food comes from and its journey from production to consumption, and how food affects our bodies and health. Each of these aspects are considered and analyzed in the preparation of the shared meal. The project requires students from various disciplines to work together and teach one another to fully grasp the complexity of the project.

Description. Teams of 7-9 students (from at least three different cluster courses) work together to plan, prepare, consume, and analyze a meal from the shared cluster perspectives. Teams are required to work within constraints of all local, all organic, or all whole foods, or a reduced budget, with the goal of producing a delicious and sustainable meal. To complete the assignments, students in different courses teach one other another nutrition, science and economics. The meals from each group are eaten together, family style in a large university ballroom as a large cluster-wide shared meal.

Assignments. Begin with a planning assignment where the student groups have to document their meal from social, nutritional and economic perspectives. In their report, students calculate the monetary and environmental impact of their meal, the nutritional analysis of recipes and an assessment of balance for the meal, the social reasons for choosing their dishes, and challenges they faced working within the constraints of their theme. Following the meal, students write a reflection paper focusing on the social and scientific issues they learned. Finally, a disciplinary assignment related to the meal is also given for students in each course.

Competitions. Prizes are awarded to the groups who prepared the most sustainable meal and the most aesthetically appealing meal.

Project Contributions

Food and Dietary Guidelines (Fall Semester)

Context. The UNCA Food and Dietary Guidelines project involves students in one course contributing to class content for students in another course. It enables students to learn how information or results produced in one discipline is used by other disciplines. And, it highlights the importance of effective communication between disciplines.

Description. Students in the Food Politics and Nutrition Policy course organize into two committees charged with overseeing the development of guidelines for UNCA, one focuses on food guidelines and one focuses on nutrition guidelines. These students become experts in a specific food or nutrition topic then draft and discuss with each other a recommendation in their expert area. The committees then receive oral or written suggestions from students in the other Food for Thought cluster classes, discuss all the guidelines as a committee and then each produce a set of proposed guidelines to be presented to campus decision-makers.

Content Contributions from other Courses. As major projects, lab experiments or other projects, students from the remaining cluster courses take on roles of experts from their discipline to create information and present it to the committees.

Farm Tours (Fall Semester)

Context. In order to understand where our food comes from and its journey from production to consumption, Food for Thought students tour local farms in the greater Asheville, NC area. The farmers give tours, discuss raising food animals and fruits and vegetables, and give students a hands-on perspective of where our food comes from.

Description. Three groups of 25-30 students from various classes tour three local farms or farming facilities in Western North Carolina. The tours are held during class time or on Saturday mornings.

Assignments. Disciplinary assignments are given to relate the tour material to content of the specific course discipline.

Food Processing Facility Tours (Spring Semester)

Context. In order to understand where our food comes from and its journey from production to consumption, Food for Thought students tour a local food processing facility in Asheville, NC called Blue Ridge Food Ventures. This not-for-profit facility aids local farmers to create value-added products from their farm production. The facility manager gives a detailed tour, discusses the economics and marketing aspects in creating value-added foods, and gives students a hands-on perspective of food's journey from farm to table.

Description. A group of 25-30 students from various classes tours the processing facility. The tours are held during class time.

Assignments. Disciplinary assignments are given to relate the tour material to content of the specific course discipline.

Poster Session & Display at the North Asheville Tailgate Market (Spring Semester)

Context. In order to understand the complexities of food information, students in four classes (BIOL 110, HWP 225, HWP 325, and SOC 385) are asked to research a food source or nutrition-related health issue and to produce a professional poster conveying their information to a consumer audience. These posters and interactive displays are exhibited at UNCA's Spring Symposium of Undergraduate Research and, once judged by a panel of local experts, displayed at the North Asheville Tailgate Market. Through researching plant food sources, nutritional information and food labeling practices, students learn about the science and policy that shapes food that reaches them in the marketplace.

Through constructing a poster and display for a lay audience, students develop skills in conveying information that is research-based in an accessible way. Our hope is that this allows students practice in effective communication for civic-based engagement in food issues.

Description. Groups of 4-8 students are matched and assigned a specific topic related to one of two themes.

Theme One: Plants, Food and Human Nutrition

Plants and Humans (BIOL 110) students are matched with students from Nutrition and Lifestyle (HWP 225) and/or Pathophysiology of Chronic Conditions and Illnesses (HWP 325). Each group is assigned a type of plant sold at the North Asheville Tailgate Market (e.g. tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, etc.).

Theme Two: Food Labels and Health Promotion

Pathophysiology (HWP 325) students are matched with students from Science and Technology (SOC 385). Each group is assigned a chronic disease or health issue from the perspective of the nutritional impacts on the issue and the consumer information available. Topics include heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and prenatal health.

Assignments.

Theme One: Plants, Food and Human Nutrition

Once groups have conducted their research, they design a professional poster and interactive display that demonstrates their research and effectively communicates their findings to a lay audience. Poster displays are held during a three-hour session at the Spring Undergraduate Research Symposium, where a panel of three judges (local experts in the fields of food, agriculture and nutrition) evaluate them using according to a rubric. Judges nominate posters for display at the North Asheville Tailgate Market in during the following summer or fall season.

Theme Two: Food Labels and Health Promotion

In a joint effort between students in Pathophysiology of Chronic Conditions and Illnesses (HWP 325) and Science and Technology (SOC 385), students assigned to one of four groups (Heart Disease, Diabetes, Cancer, Prenatal Health) identify a category of food that is especially important to avoid or to consume. The group uncovers the way that information makes its ways to consumers, and the ways that information is sometimes misleading, false, or simply confusing. The group may also encounter examples of useful, well-presented information that you believe could serve as a model for how consumers should learn about the food they consume. To do this, the group identifies major scientific research in the area,

relevant government policy regulating the production and distribution of the food, medical organizations who advocate a particular nutritional practice, media and advertising of the food, and food packaging and labeling.

Each team analyzes the following resources:

• Scientific literature: identify 2-3 valid studies to demonstrate the state of the research in the area.

• Government policy: identify key policies affecting the production, distribution, recommendations regarding the intake of this food group; include a critical discussion of howthe policies were made and who influenced them.

• Medical organizations: which organizations are big players in advocating particular nutritional practices? On what basis do they make these recommendations?

• Marketing practices: How is the food marketed through advertising, packaging, labeling, etc? What are the pitfalls consumers face in choosing foods that will support their health needs?

Once groups have conducted their research, they design a professional poster and interactive display that demonstrates their research and effectively communicates their findings to a lay audience. Poster displays are held during a three-hour session at the Spring Undergraduate Research Symposium, where a panel of three judges (local experts in the fields of food, agriculture and nutrition) evaluate them using according to a rubric. Judges nominate posters for display at the North Asheville Tailgate Market in during the following summer or fall season.

SENCERized Chemistry Course: Live, Learn and Eat: The Food of Chemistry

Live, Learn and Eat: The Food of Chemistry was designed to engage and educate students in the classroom by teaching science through the civically engaging topic of food. The Food of Chemistry is a fully-integrated lecture and laboratory course that incorporates chemistry content and experimentation with food and food-related issues by tying the relevance of fundamental chemical principles to the topics of food and cooking. A week-by-week description of the course structure and content is given in the table below.

Course Week-by-week Guide (Acrobat (PDF) 53kB Nov10 08)