Experiential Education Dialogues

Gardens, food, experiential education

A series of events for instructors and students coinciding with Think•Eat•Save: World Environment Day

Wednesday, June 5 | Events throughout the day | SFU Burnaby

The Teaching and Learning Centre is collaborating with SustainableSFU to convene several educational events focusing on food, experiential learning, and SFU's new learning garden. The events coincide with UNEP World Environment Day and this year's theme of Think•Eat•Save.  

For more information, contact Vivian Neal at vneal@sfu.ca

Current event descriptions

Learning garden tour

Note: The Learning Garden is located at the south-east corner of Convocation Mall.

Explore a new resource for campus-based learning with SustainableSFU staff and students. Join Gardens Manager Athenaise Guertin and see how campus groups, labs, and classes are using this student-run facility.

FACILITATOR: Athenaise Guertin, Gardens Manager, SustainableSFU

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Talking about learning about food: A dialogue

This interdisciplinary dialogue is about teaching and learning methods with the themes of food, gardens, and critical thinking. It will feature SFU instructors and a special guest sharing their personal experiences of teaching using experiential methods. Diana Bedoya (KIN140) will describe how students learn about diet analysis through a behaviour change project. Gerardo Otero (SA350) will discuss how students use critical thinking and peer feedback to synthesize news articles on current events. Eric Sannerud, a Udall Scholar and recent graduate from the University of Minnesota, will share highlights of a student-run undergraduate course focused on campus-based learning.

FACILITATOR:  Vivian Neal, TLC Educational Consultant

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Experiential education workshop

This workshop is for instructors and students who want to plan an experiential education activity. David Zandvliet, an SFU associate professor in the Faculty of Education, and Eric Sannerud, Udall Scholar from the University of Minnesota, will start the workshop by discussing the pedagogical approaches that underpin, respectively, Environmental Learning and Sustainable Agriculture education. University graduates need to be capable of decision-making in our future complex world, and this requires an engaged approach to learning. This workshop will empower students and challenge faculty to look at education as a dynamic space for student-driven learning and impactful experiences.

FACILITATORS: David Zandvliet, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, and Eric Sannerud, Udall Scholar, University of Minnesota

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About the EE Dialogues

The Experiential Education Dialogues and Casebook Project is a series of peer dialogue events at which SFU instructors share their experiences of using experiential education in their teaching. The initiative is being organized by the Teaching and Learning Centre in collaboration with the Experiential Education Project and others. At the end of the dialogue series, the cases will be compiled and published as a casebook, available within and outside SFU. A full description of the project is available here.

Dialogue sessions will be convened around themes such as large classrooms, community engagement, or using dialogue in your classroom. They will start with two or three instructors sharing their experiences of teaching using experiential education methods, and will include open dialogue among participants. Dialogue participants will learn about experiential education and how it could enhance their teaching and their students’ learning.

Details will be added as they become available.