Sustainable and Innovative Solution to Food waste issues
Students will gain in-depth the knowledge about current issues of food waste and develop innovative and sustainable solutions aiming at reducing it. All communication will be in Japanese. This course is unique in that Vanderbilt students will be working together with students in Japan. The cross-cultural nature of this collaborative project will teach students the importance of contextual accuracy when engaging in dialogues with students in Japan and facilitate intercultural communication skills.
Lesson Overview:
- Japanese
- Intermediate (High)
- Multiple class sessions
- Creative Tool: Flipgrid
- No costs involved
Lesson Plan:
Project Description:
Lesson 1: Students watch a video entitled “Anti-Food waste pioneer” in order to develop knowledge and understanding by learning a personal experience.
Lesson 2: Students read an article regarding “Food loss and sustainable development goals” to understand food waste at retail and consumer levels, as well as explore ways to reduce loss during production of food in Japan. • Activity 1: Group discussion to understand the content of the reading material. • Activity2: Clarification of grammar points and the meaning of vocabulary.
Lesson 3: • Activity 1: A pair work: Discussion of (1) food loss (2) identification of an issue related to food loss in own country • Activity 2: A pair work; students conduct research about countermeasures to reduce food loss in convenient stores, supermarkets, and restaurants. Students will use the following table to document their findings.
Lesson 4 (three hours) Activity 1: • Since the Japanese language is highly contextual, and has an extensive system to express politeness and formality, students will learn communication phrases to express the different existing politeness levels. They will learn appropriate ways to express opinions assertively, and expressions for counterargument. • Activity 2: Vanderbilt students will collaborate with students in Japanese University. Solution-oriented discussion will focus on sustainable solutions to reduce food waste. Students will draft a plan for their agreed upon solution. Activity 3: Students will deliver a 5 minutes presentation describing specific food waste issues, followed by a description of sustainable ways to minimize that loss.
Students will work on the following ACTFL communication modes:
Interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational
Students will work on the following language skills:
Reading, writing, listening, and speaking
COPYRIGHT & CREDIT
Hideko Shimizu
Vanderbilt University
Special credits: This project is inspired by Yoku Prefume et al.