Winter session instructor Lorraine Lanningham-Foster confirms course content Wednesday morning in her Food Sciences Building office. Photo by Christopher Gannon.
Lorraine Lanningham-Foster, department chair and associate professor of food science and human nutrition, is one of dozens of faculty members teaching this winter session. The four-week term concludes Friday, Jan. 12.
Her course, Obesity and Health (FSHN 365), is required for students in two of the department's six undergraduate majors. Because it's a relevant topic for so many and doesn't have any prerequisites, she said it's also a popular elective among other majors, including kinesiology and the pre-health disciplines. She has 11 students this winter, and the spring section is full.
"It draws a really great mix of students," she said. "My hope is they leave with a different viewpoint of obesity, an understanding that it's much more complex than diet and exercise."
The course structure relies less on quizzes and tests and more on discussion and individual reflections, she said, which requires the students to keep a certain pace so they're prepared to participate in discussions.
While she's taught a course focused on obesity for about 15 years, Lanningham-Foster said she first offered this course as a four-week option last winter. With that structure prepared, and anticipating the condensed format also might appeal to summer students, she taught it in four weeks last summer, when 14 students enrolled. She said transfer students in particular, whose program schedules may not contain much wiggle room, told her the four-week option is a helpful solution.
"They're showing me they can do this successfully. [The shorter window] is attractive to some students -- trying to get an elective in, trying to catch up with their requirements," she said.
