Take This Class! Good Greens, Bad Botanicals (and How to Know the…

A mix of lecture, discussion and hands-on activities, Moctezuma’s
class offers a deep dive on a variety of edible plants, textile plants
ornamental plants and cash crops, as well as medicinal plants and their
psychoactive counterparts. It’s fun with a stealthy dose of academics:
Like a modern-day alchemist hiding vitamins in a fruit-flavored elixir,
Moctezuma mixes foundational aspects of biology into the yummy bits that
appeal to students—poisonous plants that could kill you, the science of
caffeine, and spices that cure disease.

The course covers the history of the plants found in your fridge and
fruit bowl—including how humans figured out how they could eat them in
the first place—and how they influenced culture and migration; coveted
plants have led to wars, colonization and both environmental and human
costs. Lab exercises delve into plan structure, genetics and functions,
but also cooking with plants, medicinal plants and sustainability.

With their new knowledge, Moctezuma challenges students to debunk
myths around diet soda, organic foods and high-fructose corn syrup with
investigations that help develop critical thinking skills. While the
biology is important, he said, he hopes the course helps students make
informed decisions on what they eat, the things they wear, even how they
vote. Plants have been beneficial to humans for millennia, Moctezuma
tells his students, yet human practices like deforestation threaten not
just their ability to grow, survive and thrive, but our own.

“Plants can teach us a lot, they have a head start on us, you know,
by millions of years,” he said. “And the more we know about plants and
the better we take care of them, the better they take care of us.”

Back in the herbs and spices class, students huddled over paper
plates dotted with unlabeled berries, seeds and bark, using the limited
kitchen knowledge synonymous with the average college student to try an
identify allspice, clove and saffron, plus the spices’ origin and part
of the plant.

“Honestly, I don’t think I’ll ever look at food the same,” said Julia
Beato, a sophomore business major. “The class looked like fun, which is
why I signed up, but so much of what we’re learning applies to real
life.”

Take This Class! Is an occasional series that profiles
unique and engaging courses available to any undergraduate student at
the University of Maryland. Got a class you’d recommend? Email Maggie
Haslam at mhaslam@umd.edu.