From the games museum's collection comes this example of the board game Sorry, introduced in the 1930s but hugely popular two decades later at the time UW was coming into existence. It's part of the current "Games of 1957" exhibition.

Not-so-instant replay of 1957 games

from the UW media relations office

UW's Elliott Avedon Museum and Archive of Games — a unique Canadian resource dedicated to researching, collecting, preserving and exhibiting games and game-related objects — is celebrating UW's 50th anniversary with an exhibit called "The Spirit of 'Why Not?': Games of 1957".

The new exhibit, open to the public until the end of the year, features 50 artifacts including 39 games and related information such as magazines and books from the period when UW began. Visitors will have the opportunity to play games that were popular in 1957, while listening to some of the hit records of the year.

"While the world was busy with the space race, driving Edsels, listening to Elvis, as well as inventing Velcro, AA batteries and Tang, the game industry was also hard at work," says Jinhee Chung, museum technician and a graduate student in recreation and leisure studies. "Wham-o bought the rights to the Frisbee. Board game manufacturers capitalized on the baby boom with Bridge Bingo and Stork Bingo. They popularized games based on the new medium, television, with games such as Name That Tune."

Chung says that games based on movies such as Around the World in 80 Days were produced, along with games based on popular icons of the day, such as Nancy Drew and the Bobbsey Twins. Other games and nostalgia from the era will also be on display.

"Through the study of games, we can learn a great deal about human behaviour," says Ron Johnson, a professor of recreation and leisure studies who co-directs the museum. "Games reflect the cultures in which they were developed and played, as well as illustrating the diffusion and interaction of people throughout human history."

The museum's public gallery is located in Matthews Hall and is open Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. To book an individual visit or group tour, call 519-888-4424.

The museum collection includes more than 5,000 physical objects -- many of which have been exhibited in the public gallery since 1971. Private, public and corporate donations have supported the acquisition of artifacts from around the world. The museum's website features photographs and documentary text about many individual items in the collection. Each web page in the virtual exhibit includes one or more illustration of objects in the collection.

The museum is operated by the recreation and leisure studies department, staffed by graduate students and co-op students, and administered by UW's faculty of applied health sciences as part of the Waterloo Heritage Collections Association. It receives funding support from the Ontario Ministry of Culture.

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UW's role in International Polar Year

reprinted from the UW Magazine

The International Polar Year (March 2007 to March 2008) is a multi-national program to encourage polar research and promote public awareness of the polar regions. A key Waterloo connection is Barry Goodison, BA ’68, a geography alumnus. Goodison, a research manager with Environment Canada, is a member of IPY’s Canadian steering committee and co-ordinates EC’s contributions for IPY’s international research program in the polar regions.

These UW researchers are among those involved in projects seeking IPY funding:

• Robert Park, anthropology, is part of a new search for the remains of the Franklin expedition, based on Inuit oral tradition.

• Marek Stastna, applied mathematics, will collaborate with IPY-funded University of Toronto researchers on computer models of rapid climate change during the Younger Dryas mini-ice age, 11,000 years ago.

• Kirsten Müller, biology, is part of a Université Laval project to examine the effect of climate change on Arctic marine biodiversity.

• James Sloan, chemistry, measures Arctic pollution at the Polar Environmental Atmospheric Research Laboratory (PEARL), located at Eureka, Nunavut.

• Richard Kelly and Ellsworth LeDrew, geography, are part of a Canada-wide network of researchers who plan to produce the best snapshot of the cryosphere during the IPY. Ellsworth LeDrew also co-chairs the Canadian IPY Data Management Committee.

• Kenneth Dyson, a UW PhD candidate in kinesiology, Anna Grinburg, a kinesiology master’s student, and Melissa Battler (BSc ’04), an alumna doing grad work in earth sciences at UNB, have applied to take part in the Mars Analog Expedition on Devon Island.

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On the walls and in the e-mail

Novelties spotted on the brief walk from the parking lot this morning: a speeding truck that just about rear-ended a car slowing to make the turn into parking lot H; an apparently abandoned packet of Lean Cuisine sitting on a table in the Modern Languages coffee shop; and the first in what will no doubt be many, many posters around campus as the Federation of Students election campaign gets under way. The Daily Bulletin will have a summary of tickets and executive candidates in a day or two. Meet-the-candidate forums are supposed to start tomorrow, though the Federation web site isn't listing specifics yet.

The teams are practising and getting psyched for a hockey event that'll never be repeated, scheduled for lunchtime on Wednesday of next week. "Team Johnston" and "Team Heaney" will never make it to the top of the national university rankings — a spot where the men's Warrior squad will soon be, if their play keeps up its current standard — but for fan involvement they're in a tier of their own. What's planned is an exhibition game in honour of UW's 50th anniversary, with a team coached by UW president David Johnston (himself once a linchpin of Harvard University's Crimson on ice) and a team headed by Geraldine Heaney, coach of the women Warriors. I had a call from Brian Bourque of the athletics department a couple of days ago to report that Johnston's team, made up of staff and faculty members, is coming together nicely as a challenger to Heaney's varsity Warriors of both sexes. The big game is happening February 7 at 11:30 at the Columbia Icefield, and organizers will have free hot dogs and drinks ready for the first 300 people in the stands. Sounds like a day not to be missed.

A memo to departments from Joanne Wade, director of student awards and financial aid, draws attention to the UW Work Placement Program as it will operate for 2007-08. "We encourage your department to create new full-time work placements for students during the Spring, Fall and Winter terms," she writes. "Salary rates should be determined by job content and skills required to perform the job. Funding up to $7,400 ($1850/month) per student per term is provided by the Tuition Set-Aside Fund. Should the job require a higher salary, your department will be responsible for any difference above the $7,400 maximum. Both regular and co-operative students are eligible for these positions. If you are interested in creating a job under this program, please contact your department head or designate for more information and the necessary forms." More information: ext. 3-6039.

There's much of interest in the recently-received fall 2006 issue of Phys 13 News, published by UW's department of physics and astronomy for the use of high school science teachers. Recently-arrived faculty member James Taylor writes about "Watching the Very End of the Big Bang"; undergraduate student Christopher Saayman writes on "The Physics of the Violin"; another undergrad, Sonia Markes, writes on Bohr and Einstein; and there's a lively report by Robbie Henderson, one of the students who attended this year's Canadian Undergraduate Physics Conference, held at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton. The issue also announces this year's Sir Isaac Newton prize exam for high school physics students, to be held May 3.

The bookstore, UW Shop, TechWorx, and Campus TechShop will close early on Wednesday, at 4 p.m., for computer system maintenance. • Hot and cold water will be shut off tomorrow from 8 a.m. to noon in the "B. F. Goodrich" building, more formally known as 195 Columbia Street West. • The "Sales Management for Entrepreneurs" program, jointly sponsored by UW's Centre for Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology and a business centre at Wilfrid Laurier University, will be starting next week.

CAR

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