Science Art Ethics of Foraging

Catalog description

Foraging is the practice of finding and gathering wild plants, mushrooms, and other natural foods. It's one of the oldest human skills - and one of the most misunderstood. In this course, we explore foraging from several angles at once: the basic science of how to recognize plants and fungi safely; the rich cultural histories of people who have always known and lived alongside wild food; the culinary and creative traditions that celebrate wild ingredients; and the real questions about fairness, ecology, and the law that come up when people want to harvest from shared land. This is not a botany class, and you won't be expected to become an expert forager. Instead, you'll develop a sharper eye for the natural world - the kind that makes you look twice at a weed pushing through a sidewalk crack and wonder: what is that, who ate it before me, and is it okay to pick some? Each week you'll work through a Canvas module at your own pace: short video lectures, accessible readings, and a Discussion Post to connect with classmates. In place of live class sessions, five Milestone Activities are woven across the semester - structured asynchronous tasks that take the place of the community check-ins and presentations that would otherwise happen in real time. Your two major projects, a Plant Profile Collection at mid-semester and a creative Capstone Project at the end, are submitted online and reviewed by peers using Canvas tools. RESTRICTED TO UNDERGRADUATES