Challenge-Based Project I

Course manual 2025/2026

Course content

In the Challenge-based courses I and II students will work with real-world challenges provided by our partners from practice. In the first module, you will reflect on your own positionality and the cognitive-cultural context that shapes your own perceptions of reality. You will then learn to understand the global food and food-related health systems, from global production, trade and distribution systems, to the actors involved in these systems, the underlying paradigms and value systems of different actors. You will be able to understand how these massive, complex systems came to be, how the food and health systems are inter-related, and what the impacts on ecosystems and human health are - from global (semester 1) to local (semester 2).

Study materials

Literature

• All required literature will be provided on the Canvas page.

Syllabus

• See Canvas for details on each module (course structure can be found below).

Practical training material

• Will be provided during the practical sessions and/or on Canvas.

Software

• We will build on tools learned in the core courses. Other software will be open-access and/or provided via Canvas/during the work sessions.

Objectives

• Students are able to analyze and explain the diverging perspectives of stakeholders in terms of underlying (conflicting) interests, power relations, and worldviews.
• Students are able to communicate results to fellow students and to external partners.
• Students are able to collaborate with others by being able to reflect on their role in the process.
• Students are able to reflect on their own thoughts, feelings, and desires
• Students are able to apply documentation skills that contribute to the long-term viability of the project [by keeping records, a journal, and reflecting on project embedding].
• Students are able to give and receive constructive feedback throughout the project and digest it to feed forward.
• Students are able to frame the challenge theoretically and describe the basic causes, hypothesis, complexities, dynamics, and leverage points of the specific challenge at different levels of analysis.
• Students are able to analyze data in a pragmatic way using basic quantitative and qualitative methods.

Teaching methods

• Lecture
• Computer lab session/practical training
• Presentation/symposium
• Working independently on e.g. a project or thesis
• Supervision/feedback meeting
• Self-study

Lecture: We will provide lectures as input in the beginning of each week. This sets the stage  and provides a framing for the week's tasks.

Self-study: We provide literature and other course materials for the students to study as a start for addressing the tasks provided each week. This broad set of literature encourages students to divide tasks and seek specific information within the provided literature. Students are encouraged to seek additional information, literature and datasets to address the questions posed during the input sessions.

Working independently: Students work in groups and on their own to investigate their tasks and case studies. This is meant to stimulate discovery and synthesize information provided during the lectures and through the reading materials and data.

Practical training sessions will provide tools and exercises for deepening knowledge and understanding, and to provide the students with the skills for designing and executing their research projects.

Supervision/feedback: Each module has one or more sessions in which students present what they have learned and found as part of their research process. We provide feedback during these sessions to help students reflect on what they learned and how to improve/proceed. Students also provide feedback to each other to practice giving critical feedback. The teachers are available  to respond to students' questions as agreed for each module.

Learning activities

Attendance

Additional requirements for this course:

The student may be absent in a total of three sessions. Absence needs to be communicated to the project and course coordinators, as well as the teacher responsible for the respective module before the start of the session that is going to be missed.

Assessment

There is no exam as part of this course.

Students that were enrolled in the course in previous years

NA

Assignments

Graded assignments for each module will be posted on Canvas. These are graded individually and count 10% of the final grade, each. Feedback will be provided during the last session of each module.

For the research project (group project), there are three graded elements, the research proposal, the stakeholder forum and brief, and the handover report. Each of these elements will be graded as 50% group grade (overall proposal, stakeholder brief/forum,  handover report) and 50% individual grade (individual student contributions need to be specified as part of the proposal, brief/forum, report).

The proposal is due in week 8 (exam week), the stakeholder brief will be due in week 15, the stakeholder forum will be held in January, and the report will be due in week 21. Feedback to written and oral assignments will be given by the teachers within due time.

Fraud and plagiarism

The 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' applies to this course. This will be monitored carefully. Upon suspicion of fraud or plagiarism the Examinations Board of the programme will be informed. For the 'Regulations governing fraud and plagiarism for UvA students' see: www.student.uva.nl

Course structure

Additional information

Here is how each of the course elements and assessments contributes to the intended learning objectives (ILO) in an assessment matrix:

Last year's student feedback

In order to provide students some insight how we use the feedback of student feedback to enhance the quality of education, we decided to include the table below in all course guides.

Contact information

Coordinator

• Elisabeth Krueger

Staff

• Luc Hagenaars
• dr. Lies Jacobs PhD
• L.L. Mulder
• Arja Rydin BSc
• W.E. Waterlander
• L. Crielaard