Daily
Bulletin

The "flex lab" operated by LT3 in the Dana Porter Library.

'Scholars' end a geography week

The two students and two geography teachers from Riverdale are here as one of eight teams winding up a high-energy week in the LT3 "flex lab" in the Dana Porter Library. They're here as "Clarica Scholars", in the first year of a program funded by the financial services firm Clarica.

Last week LT3 hosted seven teams specializing in history -- each with two teachers and two students from the same high school -- and this week it's eight teams of geography teachers and students.

The team arrived with a project already in mind, explains Jill Porter, a former teacher and now education consultant who's working for LT3 for the summer to manage the program. "They know there's a problem in their course," and the challenge for the week is to design an interactive module to teach a difficult -- or usually boring -- concept, known in the jargon as an "instructional bottleneck".

Some of the teams are working on material that has something to do with water resources, with last year's Walkerton crisis clearly in mind, Porter said. Others are concentrating on geographic information systems, a subject that's new to the high school curriculum and somewhat daunting to teachers. UW geography professor Jean Andrey and some of her colleagues have been on hand during the week to advise on course content.

Andrey said she's also there to keep nudging the high school teams away from glitz for glitz's sake, and back towards software that will actually teach what the students need to learn. "Sometimes," she said, "the technology drives it," and beginners are keen to illustrate every word with Flash animations.

Porter agrees. The key question, she keeps saying, is, "What is this that a good teacher couldn't do?"

And sometimes there's a good answer. The web-based software being developed by the Riverdale team, for instance, will invite students in a grade 12 class to sign on as a member of "WT3", an agency investigating a contaminated water supply. Interactive maps and other documents, such as doctors' reports, provide soil information, contaminant readings and medical data. Eventually the student is expected to decide which of five wells was poisoned, and how.

Porter noted that the Clarica program -- which is also sending students and teachers to Acadia University this summer to work on other kinds of learning technology -- includes funding for follow-up activities during the coming year. Back at their schools, the student and teacher teams will be expected to report at Thanksgiving and in the winter about how the software is being improved and used, and how it's working.

Career guidance for UW alumni

Malabar explains that she's responsible for "career change and transition" assistance to alumni who have been out of UW for at least a year and are unsatisfied with their current working lives.

She'll look at a client's strength, weaknesses and skill sets to help them find a career path that will be more fulfilling. "It's more a dialogue with clients then a system or set activity," she says.

She uses assessment tools such as the popular Myers-Briggs personality sorter to help the clients see their own skills and goals, then can help them choose a new career path from her observations and testing.

She has a master's degree in counselling and has worked for five years in career counselling and ten years in private counselling, continuing in practice Monday to Thursday before her weekly visits to UW. that background is an ideal fit, she says, because counseling someone on their career involves more then help them find a new job -- the counsellor has to treat their entire person. the typical client, she says, is looking for clarity and generally asking one question: "What has happened in my career that make me unfulfilled?" Her job is to help the client answer that question themselves.

She can be reached by phone at ext. 2655, e-mail cmalabar@uwaterloo.ca.

The last weekend of summer

Over this weekend, the libraries will be open, which they haven't been on late-summer weekends in the past few years. Hours are noon to 6 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday, in both the Dana Porter Library and the Davis Centre.

The parking office has news for users of parking lot H: the repaving work at the staff and faculty (west) entrance to the lot will drag on into next week. It'll be finished by September 1, says parking manager Elaine Carpenter. Meanwhile, users are entering and exiting the lot by the visitor gate near the information kiosk.

A memo from the information systems and technology department a few days ago: "The campus networks advisory group has decided that, effective Monday, August 27, the following services will be added to the list of those blocked at the campus external router. This is being done because these services are generating excessive traffic on our Internet circuit, a resource which is generally used to maximum capacity." New on the interdict list are the KaZaA and gnutella "protocols" for downloading music and other files.

Tomorrow will be the last party night for a couple of weeks: the Graduate House will be closed August 25 through September 3, the Graduate Student Association advises.

Arriving today at the Ron Eydt Village conference centre are some 125 participants in the Canadian Cheerleading Camp for this year; they'll be giving us an R, giving us an E, giving us a V, through to Sunday.

News from Alberta, as reported in a release from the University of Lethbridge:

Alberta's universities and private university colleges have adopted a common grading scale. At present, the four universities and five university colleges use different scales--versions of a 4.0 scale, a 9.0 scale, and a percentage scale.

Once the new common scale is fully implemented, by September, 2003, students will be able to transfer without having their grades converted from one scale to another. The common scale will also make it easier for students to move from one institution to another in the province.

"It is quite a remarkable achievement that all four universities and all five private university colleges have agreed to implement a common grading scale," said Dr. Terry Moore, the Chair of the Alberta Council on Admissions and Transfer (ACAT) and chair of the Common Grading Systems Committee.

The rapid approval of the scale between March and June of this year by each of the nine academically self-governing institutions was possible because of the years of experience in working together within ACAT to build a transfer system that is, according to the U of Cs President Terry White, "without equal in Canada."

A federal advisory committee has recommended that the government make "a significant effort" to monitor the health effects of genetically modified food. And Health Canada officials have drawn up plans to implement many of the recommendations from a scientific panel that stressed the uncertain safety of such food. The UW connection: Conrad Brunk, philosophy professor at Conrad Grebel College, chaired the scientific panel earlier this year.

And . . . the local Volunteer Action Centre is looking for help on a number of projects. For example, volunteers are wanted "to have fun and assist adults with a developmental disability in pursuing recreational and leisure activities on Friday evenings from 7 to 10 p.m. throughout the year. Activities include Ranger Hockey games, dances, movies, crafts, floor hockey and bowling. Volunteer once a week, once every two weeks, or as your schedule permits. Training and support are provided by K-W Association for Community Living."

Second, there's Child and Parent Place, which "supports both parents and children, helping them to maintain ties, ease conflict and reduce tension after a separation or divorce. Non-judgmental, open-minded volunteers are needed 3-4 hours a week to provide support and supervision for exchanges or visits on Friday evenings, Saturdays or Sundays. Programs are centrally located in Waterloo, Cambridge or Guelph. If you believe that preserving or rebuilding loving, positive relationships is beneficial for divorced families, call us." The VAC can be reached at 742-8610.

CAR

Editor of the Daily Bulletin: Chris Redmond
Information and Public Affairs, University of Waterloo
credmond@uwaterloo.ca | (519) 888-4567 ext. 3004
| Yesterday's Bulletin
Copyright © 2001 University of Waterloo