Off Campus Activities
The off campus activities for this course are designed to get you to experience first hand the people involved in food-related practices and reflection studied in class. During the first half of the semester, you will visit a local worship site to observe a ritual that features food in some way and to interview a participant. During the second half, you will visit a farm stand or farmer's market to purchase food for one or more meals, interview the farmer or farm staff, and observe your own communal or solitary eating. (You will sign up for both visits on the course content page in SacCT.) These two experiences will serve as the foundation for the two observation reports: the Worship Report and the Food Culture Report.
Observation Reports
During the first half of the course, the Worship Report describes your observations and interviews among participants at a local worship site. During the second half of the course, the Food Culture Report describes your observations and the stories of those who sell you food from a local farm, and your experience of sharing that food with others or eating it in solitude. These reports also relate your observations to those documented in related course readings. You write for a peer (vs. a specialist) who is unfamiliar with the topic, since half a dozen student observation reports will be assigned as readings for application exercises in Units 2 & 4 and for the final TRA.
Source Analyses
At the end of units 2 & 4, when you are NOT writing an Observation Report, you must submit an analysis of one assigned readings from the half of the course you have just completed; additional readings are also available to earn extra credit. As for observation reports, you write for a peer who is unfamiliar with the topic, since several student Source Analyses will be assigned as readings for the final TRA and final application exercise.