Food for Thought: Engaging the Citizen in the Science and Politics of Food Information, Food Consumerism, Nutrition and Health

An Integrative Liberal Studies Topical Cluster at the University of North Carolina at Asheville
Sally A. Wasileski, Department of Chemistry, David Clarke, Department of Biology, Karin E. Peterson, Department of Sociology, Amy Joy Lanou, Department of Health and Wellness, Leah G. Mathews, Department of Economics

A 2008 SENCER Model

The University of North Carolina at Asheville (UNCA) has adopted an Integrative Liberal Studies (ILS) curriculum in which students take their general education distribution in natural science, social science, and humanities or arts in topical clusters centered on a common civic question. The Food for Thought cluster focuses on the intersection of science and policy by exploring the role of food in chemical, biological, and social systems. Its aims to help the student become an informed consumer of food by providing a platform for discussion of what we eat, why we eat, where our food comes from and how it is processed, and how food affects our bodies and health.

Students enroll in various Food for Thought cluster courses throughout their undergraduate career and each course has specific learning goals related to both the individual discipline and the mission of the cluster. Courses in this cluster draw from Chemistry, Biology, Nutrition, Economics and Sociology and include HWP 373 Food Politics and Nutrition Policy, CHEM 174 Live Learn and Eat: the Food of Chemistry, and ECON 245 Land Economics: Connecting Land and People. Students in any single course will contribute class content to students in another course, a strategy that enables students to gain an appreciation of specialized knowledge, while also recognizing the limits of any single discipline for solving complex problems. All of the cluster courses draw on a range of pedagogies, both traditional and innovative, including lectures and literature reviews, group projects, field trips, peer-led learning, poster presentations, laboratory experiments, and independent research.

The Course

Cluster & Course Learning Goals

Context:
The University of North Carolina at Asheville (UNCA) has adopted a curriculum, called the Integrative Liberal Studies (ILS) program, in which students take their general education distribution in natural science, social science, and humanities or arts in topical clusters centered around a common theme. The ILS approach utilizes the SENCER philosophy of a multidisciplinary platform for science and general education for all students by learning through a civically-engaging topic.

Cluster Mission:
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. Across the semesters of participation in the cluster, students gain insight into the often hidden ways that food consumption impacts us on both the individual and collective levels. As human beings, our bodies and our societies are interlinked by numerous processes, many of which can be understood by investigating the dynamics of food in chemical, biological, and social systems. Our primary goal for students is an enhanced, interdisciplinary understanding of the interplay of these systems and a more attuned sense of how food is a civic issue.

To achieve this mission, students enroll in various Food for Thought cluster courses throughout their undergraduate career. Each course has course learning goals within the individual discipline and within the mission of the cluster. Cluster courses draw from disciplines in Chemistry, Biology, Nutrition, Economics and Sociology. Students from a variety of courses learn about science and social science issues of a common theme by participating in and working on common projects – students learn intellectual context of their discipline by being exposed to the practices and frameworks of different disciplines as presented to them by peers in other courses.

Course Table Part One
Course Table Part Two
Course Table Part Three

The Courses

CHEM 174 Live, Learn and Eat: The Food of Chemistry
Format: Food of Chemistry is a fully-integrated lecture and laboratory course geared for students who would normally never take a chemistry course and satisfies the cluster natural science or the laboratory science requirement of UNCA’s general education requirement. The class has an enrollment of 16 students and is organized as a separate lecture and laboratory: lecture meets once per week in a 3-hour timeslot in a classroom with a sink and large demonstration bench and laboratory meets once per week in a separate 3-hour timeslot with available space in both a chemical laboratory (for traditional labs) and food-safe classroom (for cooking labs). Course material draws from that in a typical General Chemistry course, but is presented in a nontraditional order.

Pedagogies: Food of Chemistry is taught through the SENCER models of students learning science through civic engagement. It is geared for nonscience majors with limited mathematical background who would normally never take a chemistry course by tying the relevance of fundamental chemical principles to the topics of food and cooking. Each week, the class material is delivered (whenever possible) as a lecture topic integrated with lecture demonstrations and laboratory experiments so that students can experience a direct “daily-life” application to the scientific content. The goal is for students to finish the course with an appreciation of chemical theories and the scientific method and how they apply to everyday life, the direct application of chemistry and science to non-science issues, and the importance of and ways in which scientists and nonscientists communicate. Course content and chemical applications is learned by independent student work (instructor lectures, homework and writing assignments), visual demonstrations in class, field trips, laboratory experimentation and group projects, and multi-course cluster activities and projects.

BIOL 110 Plants and Humans (Clarke)
Format: Plants and Humans typically has an enrollment of twenty students across a wide range of majors. Students range from entering freshmen to graduating seniors. Lectures (3/week) are the primary format, but outdoor activities and in-class discussion frequently substitute for these lectures.

Pedagogies: Teaching emphasizes the students’ gaining breadth and depth of content in the subject area, but not at the expense of an understanding of theory. Students achieve an understanding of basic natural science through an appreciation of its relevance to social and environmental issues in both a contemporary and historical sense and across different cultures. Successful students read both the textbook and other assigned readings before lectures.

HWP 225 Nutrition and Lifestyle: Eating to Live Well (Lanou)
Format: Nutrition and Lifestyle is a required sophomore level course in the Health and Wellness Promotion major with no prerequisites. It is frequently also taken for personal interest by students from other disciplines from all levels. Typically 30 to 40 students are enrolled per semester. Course is largely lecture- and large group discussion-based with individual and group projects and opportunities for oral presentations.

Pedagogies: In this applied nutrition course, targeted to the individual students learn basic nutritional science through reading, lecture, and discussion. Through written assignments, class projects, and exams students are encouraged to apply these nutrition principles to their own lifestyles. For example, students do a 3 part nutritional assessment assignment in which they evaluate their eating habits strengths and weaknesses, calculate their expected total energy need and macronutrient needs, they then keep a detailed 3-day food and activity diary and calculate their actual energy and nutrient intake as well as their energy use. Finally, they evaluate how well their habits match their needs, and then write a set of personal dietary guidelines for themselves.

HWP 325 Pathophysiology of Chronic Conditions and Illnesses (Lanou)
Format: Pathophysiology is a required upper-division course in the Health and Wellness Promotion major. Junior standing and HWP 225 Nutrition and Lifestyle and an Anatomy course are prerequisites. It is occasionally also taken by students in the sciences, psychology, and the pre-health professions. Twice a week meetings are used for lectures, group discussions, small group work, and role plays.

Pedagogies: Students in Pathophysiology have the dual tasks of learning about up-to-date information about disease states and lifestyle choices that can be used to help manage them and becoming familiar with reading, critiquing, and utilizing health and disease-related original research articles for use in education, lifestyle counseling, and research papers. Students also learn about and practice writing health-related opinion editorials, critical reviews articles, lifestyle care plans, and educational materials. As part of their learning process, they are applying the disease specific information they are learning to field specific outcomes.

HWP 373 Food Politics and Nutrition Policy: How Government and Industry Impact Health (Lanou)
Format: Nutrition Policy is an elective course offered by the department of Health and Wellness. It is has no prerequisites and typically enrolls about 15 students from across a variety of disciplines. Class time is used largely for reading discussion and group work. Some lecture and discussion with guest lecturers are utilized.

Pedagogies: Nutrition policy is reading and writing intensive. Students read everything from government policy documents to a popular non-fiction book about local food ways “Animal, vegetable, miracle” by Barbara Kingsolver. They also read and watch controversial and sometimes challenging information which we use class time to consider, discuss, and critique. An emphasis is on understanding policy and how to influence, change or make it.

SOC 385 Science and Technology: Engaging the Citizen in a World of Experts (Peterson)
Format: Science and Technology is an elective in the Sociology major with no prerequisites. Suited to students at the sophomore level or higher, typically enrolls 15-25 students. The course is a combination of lecture, readings and class-based discussion, and interactive “labs”.

Pedagogies: The course combines recent research and theory in the field of the Social Studies of Science and Technology. The course emphasizes a social constructionist framework and emphasizes both the historical development of technological artifacts and the relationships between users and technological artifacts. In combination with this framework, the course adopts an inquiry-based model of learning that asks students to investigate their own relationships with technological artifacts. In addition, students are asked to develop their ethnographic/interviewing skills and to study how experts and lay people relate to technology. Because of the dual emphasis on theory and inquiry, approximately one-half of class time is devoted to lecture, discussion and readings, and the other half is devoted to hands-on activities, including building erector set models, origami construction, examination of flawed designs in everyday technologies, and observation of others using technologies.

ECON 245 Land Economics: Connecting Land with People (Mathews)
Format: Land Economics typically enrolls twenty-five students a year from majors such as Environmental Studies, Economics, History, and Management. Since there is a prerequisite of Principles of Microeconomics, students are sophomore through senior level. The course is taught using a combination of lectures, case studies, and class discussions.

Pedagogy: Land Economics is interdisciplinary in nature, as the primary focus is on applying tools from multiple disciplines to understand the links between land and people. As a result, several disciplines are used in application to provide students with multiple examples of the pedagogies used to study Land Economics just as students use multiple pedagogies to learn it. Students are responsible for not only preparing for each class session by reading the assigned material, but also for presenting material to the rest of the class at various points in the semester, both as individuals and as groups. Because there are multiple flows and sources of knowledge that require active student involvement, students are provided flexibility and decision-making opportunities related to their learning throughout the class.

Individual Course Learning Goals

Learning Goals

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Disciplinary and Cluster Learning Goals

Disciplinary Learning Goals

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)

People at the Harvest Dinner

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

Contributions Table 1
Contributions Table 2

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.

Other Course Contributions
Other Course Contributions 2

Farm Tours (Fall Semester)

Chickens on the Farm

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.

Picking Vegetables

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)

Poster Board Session #1

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.

Poster Board Session #2

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.

Poster Board Session #3

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

Poster Board Session #4

Theme One: Plants, Food and Human Nutrition

Theme One Contributions 1
Theme One Contributions 2

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.).

Poster Board Session #5

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.

Poster Board Session #6

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

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Evaluating Learning

Student Evaluation

CHEM 174 Live, Learn and Eat: The Food of Chemistry (Wasileski):
Students are evaluated by homework and midterm and final exams covering chemical theory and problems, written assignments on Food for Thought cluster activities and class reading, laboratory experiment notebooks and lab reports, Food for Thought cluster assignments, and a final media project where they make a presentation on the chemistry of food and cooking for a non-science audience. The evaluation is divided among understanding and using chemical theory, synthesizing content of that theory and its application to social issues and, communicating scientific information in written and oral forms.

BIOL 110 Plants and Humans (Clarke):
Students are evaluated on the basis of written (primarily essay) exams, quizzes based on outdoor activities, and a research paper based on a book (currently Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan). Students work on improving the quality of their writing and their ability to synthesize both facts and theory in their exams and papers.

HWP 225 Nutrition and Lifestyle: Eating to Live Well (Lanou):
Students are evaluated on the basis of 3 in-class exams, a 3 part nutritional assessment project, 2 written response papers to cluster activities, and participation and reflection on a service learning project. In addition, they complete one or more group cluster activities outlined elsewhere which account for 15 to 30% of their grade depending on the semester.

HWP 325 Pathophysiology of Chronic Conditions and Illnesses (Lanou):
Students are evaluated on their class engagement, a series of writing assignments including three critiques of original research articles, an opinion editorial, and a final research paper. In addition, they participate in the spring semester cluster activities, complete one individual exam and a team final that includes verbal demonstration of competencies.

HWP 373 Food Politics and Nutrition Policy:How Government and Industry Impact Health (Lanou):
Students are evaluated on their class engagement, multiple reading reflection papers, a mid-term exam, and their individual and team completion of a set of food and nutrition guidelines for the UNCA campus. They also complete and reflect on the fall cluster activities as 25% of their work for this course.

ECON 245 Land Economics: Connecting Land with People (Mathews):
Students are evaluated based on their class engagement, homework assignments and a group project requiring them to integrate their learning with that of their classmates to develop and present (in writing and by teaching a one day class session) a sustainable local food system.

SOC 385 Science and Technology: Engaging the Citizen in a World of Experts (Peterson):
The course uses a combination of formal and informal writing assignments as well as team-based projects. Students make weekly entries on a class WIKI page, reflecting on the interactive labs; write 5 short formal papers summarizing and applying the sociological frameworks they are learning; conduct a semester-long ethnography examining the relationship between an expert or lay-person and a technological artifact of their choice, writing a 12 page paper examining their observations. This is in addition to their work in the Food for Thought Cluster joint activities, which typically count for about 20% of their grade.

Course and Cluster Evaluation

The courses and cluster are evaluated by an adapted SENCER-SALG given as a pre- and post-test. SALG questions were modified to assess student perception of the content and context of courses from non-science disciplines and to assess student perception on learning in the Food for Thought cluster projects and activities. Pre-test questions were repeated in the post-test in order to quantify changes in student perceptions before and after the specific course and Food for Thought cluster experience. Students are tracked by their Student ID Number in order to assess changes before and after each course and as students take various courses within the cluster.

Below is the adapted SENCER-SALG where the following sections were given to each course:

Pre-Tests

Pre-Test Packet

Post-Tests

Post-Test Packet

Background and Context

Cluster History

The Food for Thought cluster and courses within were envisioned and developed in the Fall 2006 semesters by Drs. Wasileski, Peterson, Lanou and Mathews, including the new courses Live, Learn and Eat: The Food of Chemistry and Food Politics and Nutrition Policy. Courses were first offered in the 2007-2008 academic year.

Role of the Cluster and Courses in Undergraduate Curriculum

UNCA has adopted a general education program called the Integrative Liberal Studies (ILS) program that involves the following general education requirements: Liberal Studies Introductory Colloquium: a writing intensive course that serves as an introduction to campus life. These are taken by students in their first semester at UNC Asheville.

Foundation Courses:

  • Language 120 Foundations of Academic Writing
  • laboratory science course
  • Health and Wellness course
  • any 4-hour math or statistics course
  • foreign language

Intensives:

  • writing
  • information literacy
  • quantitative
  • diversity
  • Topical Cluster: Topical Clusters bring the perspectives of several different disciplines to bear of a particular issue or subject area. Students are required to complete one Topical Cluster, consisting of at least three courses, for a total of 9 credit hours or more. No more than 3 of the 9 credit hours a student applies toward the Topical Cluster may have the same course prefix. Of these courses, one must be designated as ILS Social Science (ILSS) and one as ILS Natural Science (ILSN); to complete the cluster, then, a student will need to take a third course, with a third prefix. An ILS Arts (ILSA) course may be taken within the Topical Cluster, but it is not required. Students are invited to take more than the required 9 hours. If students choose to do so, they may take additional courses from any listed in the Topical Cluster.
  • Humanities Program

Food for Thought is one of twelve topical clusters, focusing on the topic of educating the student as an informed consumer of food.

External Funding Source

  • 2006 National Center for Science and Civic Engagement Post-Institute Implementation SENCER NSF Sub-Awards. “Food for Thought: A Course Cluster Engaging the Citizen in the Science and Politics of Food Information, Food Consumerism, Nutrition and Health; Development, Implementation and Assessment of a SENCERized Topical Cluster”. PIs: Sally A. Wasileski (co-PI), Karin Peterson (co-PI), Amy Lanou, and Leah Mathews; $3,000 plus $3,000 university matching funds.

Internal Funding Sources

  • UNCA ILS Block Grant. “Engaging the Cluster! A proposal to develop linkages between cluster courses and outreach beyond the cluster.” PIs: Karin E. Peterson, Sally A. Wasileski, Amy J. Lanou and Leah G. Mathews. $4,000 (plus $1,000 departmental matching).
  • 2008 UNCA ILS Block Grant. “Assessing Interdisciplinary Learning in the Food for Thought Cluster.” PIs: Karin E. Peterson, Sally A. Wasileski, Amy J. Lanou, Leah G. Mathews, David I. Clarke and Cathy Whitlock. $4,000.
  • 2008-2009 University Teaching Council Grant. “Student Collaborative Learning Across Courses and Disciplines in ILS Cluster 9: Food for Thought: Engaging the Citizen in the Science and Politics of Food Information, Food Consumerism, Nutrition and Health.” PIs: Karin E. Peterson, Amy J. Lanou, Leah G. Mathews and Sally A. Wasileski. $945.

Resulting Projects, Research, and Recognition

Talks Presented at Conferences

  • Sally A. Wasileski, Karin E. Peterson, Amy J. Lanou, Leah G. Mathews, “Food for Thought: Engaging the Citizen in the Science and Politics of Food Information, Food Consumerism, Nutrition and Health”, Panel Discussion at SENCER DC Symposium, Washington DC, April 2008.

Posters Presented at Conferences

  • Sally A. Wasileski and Karin E. Peterson, “Improving Chemistry Literacy for Non-Science Majors through Food and Cooking: Development and Assessment of an Introductory Chemistry Course”, American Chemical Society (Division of Chemical Education), New Orleans, LA, April 2008.
  • Sally A. Wasileski, Karin E. Peterson, Amy J. Lanou, Leah G. Mathews, “Food for Thought: Engaging the Citizen in the Science and Politics of Food Information, Food Consumerism, Nutrition and Health”, SENCER DC Symposium, Washington DC, April 2008.

Resources

  1. Abelman, Michael: On Good Land: The Autobiography of an Urban Farm
  2. Campbell, T. Colin.: The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Longterm Health (2006)
  3. Katz, Sandor Ellix: The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved: Inside America’s Underground Food Movements (2007)
  4. Kingsolver, Barbara: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (2007)
  5. Menzel, Peter & Faith D’Aluisio: Hungry Planet: What the World Eats (2005)
  6. McGee, Harold: On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen (2004)
  7. Nestle, Marion: What to Eat (2002), Food Politics:How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition, and Health (2007)
  8. Nabhan, Gary: Coming Home to Eat (2002)
  9. Pollan, Michael: The Omnivore’s Dilemma (2006), In Defense of Food (2008)
  10. Simon, Michele: Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back (2006)
  11. Staten, Vince: Can You Trust a Tomato in January? The Hidden Life of Groceries Revealed at Last (1994)
  12. Wolke, Robert: What Einstein Told His Cook (2002), What Einstein Told His Cook 2 (2005)