i've always felt really uncomfortable about any sort of at-home labs that make assumptions about what students have access to at home, especially when it's food-related

it's been so difficult to articulate to the other profs and i didn't really get why until now 1/n

when we were making banh khot, my mom said when she lived in the refugee camps in song be, she and the family would make banh khot with things that would normally be thrown out. leftover rice about to go bad, coconut pulp from after squeezing out every last drop of milk. (2/n)

and it really made me realize how so much of the way my family treats food comes from poverty. things like cooking oil and salt were used sparingly and cautiously - not even a single grain of salt got wasted, because that's just how they grew up. (3/n)

i've been fortunate enough to never have been in a position of food insecurity, but a lot of my habits when it comes to food comes directly from my parents - who picked those habits up from their childhoods. the idea of using an entire cup of oil in one go makes me cringe (4/n)

and yet that's what these labs are asking the students to do. use a cup of oil to see if this plastic sample floats! make a 50% salt solution and a 70% sugar solution! but don't even think about reusing them - no food in the lab, and that stuff is now lab equipment! (5/n)

sure, the cost of these materials is low - but that's from our privileged perspective, where there isn't any sort of barrier to just walking into the supermarket and picking up a carton of eggs, a box of ziploc bags, and a bottle of rubbing alcohol. (6/n)

the approach that's been taken so far seems to be from the perspective of "we'll require all these materials outside of what's listed as required at the bookstore, and deal with things as students tell us". but why are we assuming that students would actually tell us? (7/n)

"oh, just have the students partner up with someone who does have the materials!" but are they getting anything out of watching someone else do it? at that point, it's no better than a virtual lab, but now, only the disadvantaged student loses out. how is that equitable? (8/n)

and especially for any students that are in a food-insecure position, asking them to use food as part of an experiment seems like an extra slap in the face. "want to pass this class? go spend money on food - but hope you didn't want to eat that egg!" (9/n)

is this an extreme scenario? some would argue so. but the frequency of this shouldn't be an issue to begin with: why are we assuming that our students are all capable of putting in any sort of financial investment beyond what we've already required of them via tuition? (10/n)

i don't have a good solution for this. but i am (and will continue to be) very uncomfortable with any sort of required classwork that involves students spending additional money/resources, and on a personal level, especially if it's on food that then has to be tossed. (11/n)

anyways i'm bad at being coherent whenever things start relating back to Personal Things™ so i sure hope nobody was expecting a well-written treatise here lmfao

also don't get me started on the hot mess known as virtual labs and the limitations they have. that's less from an equity standpoint and more from a pedagogical standpoint, but that's a rant for another time where i'm avoiding grading