Eat.Think.Design. is an interdisciplinary innovation course at UC Berkeley that addresses big challenges in food and food systems. It emerged from Designing Innovative Public Health Solutions (DIPHS), a course that was taught from 2011-2013. Eat.Think.Design. has taken the best of DIPHS, focused it on a particular set of issues (food), and used the curriculum overhaul as an opportunity to dramatically improve the ways that we learn and experience innovation. Eat.Think.Design. was first offered in Spring 2014, was taught again in Spring 2015, Spring 2016, and Spring 2017. It is currently being taught in Spring 2018 with a new focus on food and climate change. The course has included 171 students between 2011-2017, representing 34 academic programs across campus.
Developing Eat.Think.Design. From August 2013 – January 2014, a team of four MPH students – all DIPHS ’13 alumnae – collaborated with the teaching team on the curriculum redesign: Jamie Creason, Mandy Murphy, Amy Regan, and Erika Tribett. This work was supported in part by a grant from the Center for Teaching and Learning, but much of this work was undertaken by this team purely as a result of their dedication to the course, to innovation, and to reforming how we teach at Berkeley.
Focus on Climate: Starting in 2017 and carrying into 2018, with support from a grant from the Center for Teaching and Learning, the teaching team began an effort redesign the course with a focus on climate. Two graduate students are an instrumental part of this work: Claire Cutler, who is a first-year MPH student studying Environmental Health Sciences, and Hortencia Rodriguez, who is completing her MPP from the Goldman School of Public Policy this spring.
About DIPHS: Designing Innovative Public Health Solutions (PH290-2) is a graduate-level, restricted enrollment, interdisciplinary, project-centered course at the University of California, Berkeley. The first version of this class was designed by Jaspal Sandhu and Nap Hosang in late 2010. It was taught for the first time in Spring 2011, and has been taught each spring semester since then. This course teaches students how to systematically design innovative interventions and programs in public health. Throughout the course, students work domestic and global innovation projects with external clients that will be implemented. This is the only course of its type in the country.