Union Square is the main place to buy food in Tressider Union and a space that is under-utilized in terms of opportunities for learning.
It may seem to be just a place to pick up lunch when hunger strikes, but it holds great potential for learning for both new students and veterans.
This fast-food mecca already is teaching students on a daily basis. Here are a few things one can learn from the place already:
-How much does food cost here? -Is this a place to get food? If so, when can I get food here? -What kind of food do they have here? -What kind of beverages? -How do they prepare the food? -What do I do once I get a plate of food? Where do I pay? -Where are the utensils, napkins, condiments?
These are some of the common questions, but Union Square also addresses some cultural ones which may be more important to foreign students such as:
-What do people eat here? -What kinds of ingredients do they use? -When is the most common time to eat? (When is it crowded?) -What kinds of things do students like? (Where are the lines longest?)
Deb Kim: These are all wonderful observations and I see a nice fit related to spaces and the affordances for learning about ways of participating in activity - lunch/meals described in the Lave and Wenger chapters, Michalchik article, and even Bransford and Schwartz' paper on transfer and preparation for future learning that is happening in the ways people learn in Union Square already.
So, already a lot of learning is happening, but Union Square holds plenty of opportunity for additional learning to happen.
One key area they could address is nutrition. I am always amazed that learning institutions regularly seem to fall short when it comes to teaching people about what is good for their bodies. Stanford spends millions of dollars to get the very finest professors in the world to teach here, but still provides a generally poor supply of food to fuel the minds and bodies of their students. For as often as students visit Tressider, a little learning about nutrition could go a long way.
'scott' What do you think is the best way to tech nutrition in such a space? I think it is a great idea, I'd like to see the same done in grocery stores (although I think a college campus is a more likely candidate), but how do you introduce ideas to people who are not looking to spend much time in the space or who go there so regularly that they may ignore most of the information in that space?
Other possible subjects they could touch on include: -Where does the food they serve come from? -What types of technology do they use to serve/preserve/prepare food? -How many people work here? -How many people visit here? -How much waste do they generate? -What kind of jobs are we providing to the community?
Clearly the learning potential is great in a place as seemingly mundane as a cafeteria.
Dan Gilbert Nice comments and reactions, part of the purpose of this course is to look a little longer at the mundane and see how to make it better. In a college campus some kind of guerilla marketing campaign by a student(s) would be a nice fit for talking about nutrition in cafeterias. I think the most important learning is connecting the food you eat in the cafeteria with the bigger picture of your diet and overall health. Perhaps the Vaden Student health center could set up a booth to promote nutrition. Or a bulletin board for people to post their reactions to the food there. Compared to most places, Stanford is pretty receptive to new ideas and to making life better for students and employees. Not saying that Union Square mgmt. is going to suddenly disclose all of their nutritional info and how much they pay their workers, but as an organization, especially a big one, Stanford is pretty open to innovative thinking. So perhaps this is an opportunity for a group project for this course.
bobby While most people are in a rush here, students still often have to wait in line which might be a ripe opportunity for learning. Certainly not everyone will engage, but just by sheer numbers, you are bound to affect some people..especially if the learning experience is something novel, surprising, or just plain weird. Word travels fast on campuses...especially about things that are out of the ordinary. :)
Deb Kim: A fine space to identify and consider as a "missed opportunity" learning space. I definitely see multiple opportuinties, and multiple players just on campus that one could bring in to collaborate on ways to update the Union Square as a learning space about nutrition. Schools K-12 are doing this very thing and making a huge difference on ways their students experience lunch, the cafeteria and themselves in relation to marketing and advertising food, cooking, food production, etc. The possibilities are endless about how settings like Tressider and Union Square could be a learning space and the kinds of learning that could happen there. If we really think about it, good nutrition is an area of learning that is generally not explicitly taught in formal education settings, unless one pursues this as a career Or is proactive about learning about it on their own. In fact, I might even suggest that the folks who provide food at Tressider are not that aware of the nutrition facts. Thanks for sharing.
Co Barry i like your choice of Union Square as a learning space. I agree with you that there is a lot of potential learning that could be built into the space. Not only to you have a large population of people moving through the space daily, but you also have a fairly captive audience because many of them will be waiting either in line or for their food to be prepared. This is an awesome time to teach something. Specifically, I think it would be interesting to think about teaching people about where their food comes from and how to eat healthy. They are already thinking about food so they would be in the right mind space. It would also be a good place to talk about how the production of food and packaging impacts the environment, and what students can do about it.