All News & Events
Women science professors among 3M award’s 10 best
Part of an elite community of great university educators, 10 professors lead the way as they challenge and inspire their students
TA Loeffler, a professor of human kinetics at Memorial University of Newfoundland—and a world-class mountaineer—knows every student has her own Everest to conquer. “Go for it! Go big!” she scrawled on one student’s tentative first assignment. “Funny,” the student later reflected, “how such simple words can be so powerful.”
Malgorzata Dubiel, a senior mathematics lecturer at Simon Fraser University, could offer an equation to explain the exponential impact of great teachers, but why not let a student put her gratitude into words: “My attitude toward mathematics has changed from one of loathing to one of fascination.”
Dubiel and Loeffler have reached the summit of their profession. They are two of 10 professors named this year to the 3M National Teaching Fellowship—an elite community of 228 of the country’s best university teachers.The award, now in its 23rd year, was established by 3M Canada in collaboration with the Society of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. It was the idea of John Myser, then-president of 3M Canada, as a long-overdue recognition of the inspirational power of great professors. Maclean’s became the media partner for the awards in 2006.
The award has contributed to a gradual shift in attitude as university administrators realize what students in overcrowded lecture halls have long known: that fostering and rewarding exceptional teachers contributes as much to an institution’s impact and reputation as the greatest research. This year’s winners—selected for the quality of their teaching, their leadership and contributions to pedagogy—were chosen from 52 carefully vetted nominations. The number and quality of submissions continue to rise, as adjudicators search for the elusive “wow factor” that exceeds even the 3M’s high criteria, says program coordinator Arshad Ahmad, a business professor at Concordia University, and a 3M fellow himself.
While a professor can impact thousands of students, the fellowship sees its task as influencing the very science of teaching. The fellows are about to publish a book on the benefits and perils of silence in teaching and learning. The next major project, likely welcomed by students weighed down by ponderous academic writing, is an exploration of narrative storytelling as a teaching tool.
The fellows will gather in Windsor this June for a meeting of the teaching and learning society. They’ll attend a retreat this November at the Fairmont Le Château Mon¬tebello in Quebec. “Projects are hatched,” Ahmad says of the meetings. “This award is about people getting together and creating a kind of ethos that is bigger than themselves.” Among the 2008 fellows:
Malgorzata Dubiel, Department of Mathematics, Simon Fraser University
Midway through a lecture in Math 190, her course in Mathematics for Elementary School Teachers, Dubiel invokes the thoughts of Homer to illustrate the leap between two- and three-dimensional shapes. While math is indeed an odyssey for many phobic students, she isn’t seeking wisdom from the ancient epic poet. Her Homer is Simpson, the cartoon guy from Springfield.
In a brief clip on the lecture hall screen, Homer falls into a 3-D world of spheres, cones and complex shapes. “What’s going on here, I’m so bulgy?” he says, looking at his transformation from flat to fat. The Simpsons segment is loaded with advanced concepts and inside jokes. “Oh, there’s so much I don’t know about astrophysics,” Homer laments. “I wish I’d read that book by the wheelchair guy.” His plaintive reference to Stephen Hawking, the theoretical physicist, draws sympathetic laughter. Math is a frightening universe for many of these students, too. Lucky for them Dubiel is an exceptional guide.
Dubiel learned her love of math and problem-solving as a girl in her native Poland. Part of it came from a state-run school system that did not steer girls from the subject. The rest came from her father, an engineer and, really, a rocket scientist at a military technical academy. She was surprised, after coming to Canada in 1982, at the uninspired level of public-school math instruction. “Part of it is the confidence of people teaching it. If you don’t think you’re good at math yourself, you may not be sufficiently confident to teach it.”
Many of those educational casualties end up in Dubiel’s classes. Not only does she teach math to future teachers, she helped design FANx99, a mandatory remedial program populated by students who flamed out of high-school math. Passing FAN is a mandatory step to an undergrad degree at SFU. She defuses their defeatism with good hu¬¬mour, an engaging collection of math puzzles, examples of its history, personalities and its uses in daily life, including The Simpsons. By starting with an interesting problem, and working toward its solution, she believes students are more likely to see the relevance and, yes, beauty of the tools and structure that underpin the discipline.
Nicole Weber and Nicole Engel, both aiming at teaching careers, entered Dubiel’s course with trepidation. Both struggled with math in high school. “She touches the students who are very frustrated,” says Weber. “She actually made me love math,” says Engel. “She took the time to show me the background, history and the reasoning and context I needed.” They’ve come to realize that math is a skill to be earned, not a gift bestowed on a select few. “Math is hard but it’s not impossible,” says Engel. “It takes work.”
Katherine Frego, Department of Biology, University of New Brunswick (Saint John) was also named an award winner.
Canadian astronaut to visit space station in 2009
A Canadian astronaut will be visiting the International Space Station next year.
Industry Minister Jim Prentice, the minister responsible for the Canadian Space Agency, says mission specialist Julie Payette will head to the space station aboard the shuttle Endeavour in April 2009.
It will be Payette’s second mission in space; she was aboard the space shuttle Discovery in 1999. She was Canada’s second woman in space after Roberta Bondar flew on Discovery from May 27 to June 6, 1999, and orbited Earth 153 times over 10 days while aboard the shuttle and the International Space Station.
Attention all undergrads - XX evening - March 4, 2008
SCWIST invites women studying SET to the XX Evening networking event at TELUS World of Science on Tuesday March 4, 2008.
Find out how amazing women are making careers in science and technology.
Your $12 entrance fee covers the refreshments and film.
5:15 Registration. Please arrive by 5:30 PM.
For security reasons, no late-comers will be admitted.
5:45 Panel discussion
Hear real success stories and get some good advice.
7:00 Pizza and Networking.
Chat with potential mentors.
8:30 Omnimax film Dinosaurs Alive!
Door prizes!!
Please pre-register by February 29, 2008 by calling Science World at 604-443-7551 or emailing .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
4th Annual Student Biotechnology Network Career Expo + Conference - Feb. 13, 2008
The 4th Annual Student Biotechnology Network Career Expo + Conference
Date: February 13th, 5-9pm
Location: Westin Bayshore, Vancouver
Details: The SBN Career Expo and Conference is the largest biotech event of its kind in Western Canada and is the primary means for students in BC to
learn about the opportunities that exist in the local biotech industry.
Objectives of the Career Expo + Conference
• To provide students with the means to make well-informed career decisions
• To inform students about careers outside of academia via presentations and unparalleled exposure to the individuals and organizations that comprise the local biotechnology industry
• To inspire students to launch career paths in the biotech or pharmaceutical industries
• To encourage development of life skills, most importantly networking and communication which are essential to a successful career in any field
Please visit [url=http://www.TheSBN.ca]http://www.TheSBN.ca[/url] for more info.
UBC professor to help analyse images of Mercury
Latest pictures from NASA probe show volcanic activity, deep crevices
WASHINGTON—A NASA probe with a B.C. connection shot past Mercury this month, finding evidence of past volcanic activity on the planet as well as a puzzling geological feature scientists have named “The Spider.”
On Wednesday, the U.S. space agency released some of the first photos and data collected by its car-sized Messenger spacecraft, which flew past Mercury on Jan. 14.
Messenger is an acronym for Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging.
Some of that data will later be analysed by Catherine Johnson, a professor of earth and ocean sciences at the University of B.C. who is one of about 20 scientists worldwide chosen by NASA to be involved in the project.
Surdas Mohit, a post-doctoral researcher who works with Johnson, said Wednesday that Johnson will be using data from Messenger to help learn about Mercury’s magnetic field.
While Mercury looks superficially like Earth’s moon with a cratered, rocky surface, scientists said Wednesday that Messenger is showing them something quite different.
“We were continually surprised. It was not the planet we expected. It was not the moon,” said Sean Solomon of Carnegie Institution of Washington, the mission’s lead investigator.
“It’s a very dynamic planet with an awful lot going on.”
Mercury is a mystery in many ways and its proximity to the sun has made it difficult to observe from Earth.
Mercury has been visited by a spacecraft only twice before, in 1974 and 1975 when NASA’s Mariner 10 flew past it three times and mapped about 45 per cent of its surface.
The latest fly-by covered another 30 per cent of the surface, showing a side of the planet never seen before.
The probe is due to fly by again in October of this year and in September 2009 before beginning a year-long orbit of the planet in 2011.
“The Spider” was the most striking feature described by the scientists Wednesday.
It is made up of more than 100 narrow, flat-floored troughs radiating from a central point, much as petals from a daisy or the legs of a spider.
“The Spider” has a crater 40 km wide near its centre, but it is unclear whether this is related to the feature’s original formation and scientists aren’t sure what to make of it.
“It’s a real mystery,” said Louise Prockter of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, who works on the mission.
“The Spider” is in the middle of Mercury’s Caloris basin, one of the solar system’s biggest impact craters, formed more than 3.8 billion years ago when a large space rock hit.
Based on the new observations, the diameter of the Caloris basin is now thought to be 1,550 km, larger than a previous estimate based on Mariner 10’s data.
The basin’s interior looks like it was volcanically resurfaced by magma from deep within Mercury’s crust or mantle.
Prockter said Mariner 10 data provided some evidence of past volcanic activity on the planet, but Messenger leaves “very little doubt … that there has been widespread volcanism on Mercury’s surface.”
It was launched in 2004 and flew past Venus twice and Earth once en route to Mercury.
With Pluto now classified as a dwarf planet, Mercury is the solar system’s smallest full planet, with a diameter of 4,880 km, only a bit larger than Earth’s moon.
It orbits the sun every 88 days.
SCWIST Newsletter - January 2008
Read the latest edition of SCWIST News: SCWIST-News-2008-January.pdf
UBC post-doc maps dark matter
New map lets scientists “see” dark matter
Researchers use Hubble Space Telescope to predict where dark matter is
A study headed by a University of British Columbia researcher is giving scientists a peek at dark matter’s effects on distant galaxies.
Catherine Heymans, a post-doctoral fellow in the university’s department of astronomy and physics, has generated the highest resolution map of dark matter ever captured.
“For the first time we are clearly detecting irregular clumps of dark matter in a supercluster,” she said in a news release. “Previous studies were only able to detect fuzzy, circular clumps, but we’re able to resolve detailed shapes that match the distribution of galaxies.”
Dark matter is matter that doesn’t absorb or emit light. Though it can’t be seen, scientists can often observe its effects on visible matter. They believe it surrounds the universe’s galaxies and influences their rotational and orbital speeds.
It is also believed to pull distant galaxies into superclusters, which are large groupings of small galaxy groups and clusters.
Heymans and a team of researchers used the Hubble Space Telescope to monitor the supercluster Abell 901/902 and more than 60,000 galaxies located behind it.
Abell 901/902 is 2.6 billion light-years from Earth.
In order to be seen on Earth, the galaxies’ light must pass through the dark matter that surrounds the supercluster.
And dark matter, the researchers found, left more than a mark on the galaxies’ appearance. Circular galaxies more closely resemble the shape of a banana after passing near dark matter, the study said.
Heymans and her co-researchers will publish their results in an upcoming issue of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
BrownBag Summary - January 08 - How do students/employees view instructors/managers based on gender?
Groups of women discuss provocative topics at locations in academia and industry throughout BC. The January 2008 topic was: How do students and employees view instructors and managers based on gender?
By: Michelle LaHaye
This topic made me reflect back to my undergraduate studies in engineering. Initially there were only two female faculty members and students’ comments about them were certainly less than complimentary. Over the years as new women joined the faculty the attitudes became more positive, however I am left wondering how much of the students’ initial judgments were based upon the individual’s proficiency at teaching and how much upon the fact that they were female in a nearly all male faculty.
When this question was posed at the BrownBag Lunch discussion at UBC several perspectives were presented from students and faculty. What stood out from this discussion was the wide range of experiences. One faculty member told how her female students will compliment her on her outfits. She doesn’t mind the compliments but knows that this would not happen if she were a man and is concerned that female instructors are criticised more harshly and are expected to be more than just smart and knowledgeable.
Another woman who had in the past instructed at a school told how she found that students would be far more critical of the women instructors, waiting and even looking for them to make a mistake, while with the male instructors, there was an atmosphere of respect from the students from the moment the class began.
One of the students in the discussion could not comment on how students would view female faculty since she had never had a woman instructor. This brings again to light the need for role models as she was unsure how to behave in her classes where she is the only female as well as demonstrating to the male students that women are as capable as men in these areas.
At NRC-IFCI, the facilitator presented some data from a study done on gender and teaching. In the study, the researchers found that the professor’s gender did not significantly affect a student’s performance [1]. Results of the study indicated that the effects of both student gender and instructor gender were of little practical meaning, accounting for only five percent of the variance in student satisfaction and overall performance. The group discussion agreed with this data, saying that their interest did not depend on the gender of their instructors. In addition, they said that instructors of either gender served as role models.
In addition they touched on some reoccurring themes related to leadership and women. It may seem obvious when stated but is somehow frequently forgotten in practice: men and women supervisors have different styles. But different does not equal bad. And although the styles might be different the skills required are not. Another theme was the issue of whether women are trying to act like men and men trying to act like women. People need to act like themselves and not assign gender to their actions. As they stated, “The only way to be powerfully successful, whether you’re a man or a woman, is to be who you are.”
When asked at the BC Hydro discussion about the perception of leaders and managers based on gender a few noteworthy statistics were mentioned.
50% of executive at BC Hydro are women
About 40% of next level of senior managers are women
In particular one attendee said that one of the factors for deciding to work at BC Hydro was the number of women in leading roles. This clearly indicates the importance of having women in leadership roles in a company for attracting new hires.
The group at BC Hydro then came up with a list of things needed to increase the number of female leaders.
Mentor the women that are out there to encourage and support them.
Avoid labelling leadership styles as masculine or feminine.
Understand the behaviours and traits of good management.
Increase the number of women in technical, engineering and trades positions. And showcase the women in these positions as role models.
Recognize and accept success, including self promotion.
On an interesting note, all three discussions highlighted at some point the positive aspects of how women manage and instruct and how these are valuable and much needed skills. Women are detail-oriented, excellent at organisation, planning, communication and relationships. Given equal opportunities women will excel in leadership roles. In particular, women can be effective leaders for implementing change and this is an excellent opportunity for women to demonstrate their abilities to lead. Ultimately, real power comes from within and should never be confused with the official position.
[1] F.Hoffman, P. Oreopoulos, A Professor Like Me: The Influence of Instructor Gender on College Achievement, NBER Working Paper No. 13182, June 2007.
Visit SCWIST at the 2008 UBC Life Sciences & Land and Food Systems Career Fair - Jan. 28, 2008
Date: Monday, Jan. 28, 2008
Time: 5:00 – 7:30 pm
Location: SUB Ballroom, UBC
Admission: Free
The Career Fair brings together students and companies, government agencies, NGOs and other organizations to learn more about each other and make valuable contacts. With over 100 exhibitors and 1200 students this is a great way for employers to maximize their exposure to a broad range of potential employees, and for students to practice their networking skills and learn more about the job market.
For more information please visit http://www.landfood.ubc.ca/careerfair/index.html
East Van science student earns Rhodes Scholarship
Recipient is in fourth year at UBC, studying microbiology and immunology
Chad Skelton, Vancouver Sun – Friday, December 07, 2007
A 21-year-old University of B.C. student from east Vancouver has won a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University in England.
Emma Preston, a fourth-year student of microbiology and immunology, was chosen for her outstanding grades but also for her community-service work, including pressuring her own university to improve access to drugs for the world’s poor.
“Emma’s remarkable in terms of her combination of enthusiasm and intellect and really extraordinary community participation,” said Andrew Wilkinson, who helps administer the scholarship in B.C. “She’s a real builder and a real go-getter and we’re delighted to have her as a Rhodes Scholar.”
Each year, a single student in B.C. is selected as a Rhodes Scholar, one of 11 such prizes across the country and several dozen around the world.
Many prominent people, such as former U.S. president Bill Clinton, are Rhodes Scholars.
Preston said she is planning to use the prize—worth nearly $150,000—to pursue a master’s degree in global health science at Oxford.
Her main interest is how diseases such as HIV affect poor people, something she said she first became interested in early in life when she saw the problems in the Downtown Eastside.
“Growing up in east Vancouver, you drive through the Downtown Eastside and it just strikes you how there’s this 12-block radius and there’s so much disease and poverty,” she said. “Even as a young child it struck me as incredible that this could exist.”
For the past two summers, Preston has been working at the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS doing lab work and at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control researching how diseases spread among drug users.
She volunteers at Vancouver General Hospital and the Dr. Peter Centre and plays intramural basketball.
Preston was also a founding member of the UBC chapter of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, a group that lobbied UBC to ensure any drugs and technologies developed on campus are made available to the world’s poor at low cost.
Just this week, UBC became the first university in Canada to adopt a “global access licensing” strategy that commits the university to many of the group’s principles.
Preston said she hopes someday to work for the World Health Organization or an international charity like Doctors Without Borders.
She acknowledged that her many extracurricular activities don’t leave her much spare time, though she confessed she enjoys watching the British soap opera Coronation Street.
“A lot of these things I do, I enjoy doing them, so that’s relaxing in itself,” she said.
Preston graduated from Vancouver Technical secondary school in east Vancouver.
Her father is a media archivist with the CBC and her mother is a special-education assistant.
The Rhodes Scholarships were established in 1903 following the death of British diamond magnate Cecil B. Rhodes.
His will stipulated that the awards should go to “not merely bookworms,” but well-rounded students who were involved in community service and “manly outdoor sports such as cricket.”
Girls Dominate the Siemens Competition
For the first time in the prestigious national math and science contest’s nine-year history, girls were awarded both grand prizes
read more >>
Tools for Transition: Navigating Change and Making Life-Shaping Decisions - January & February 2008
Tools for Transition: Navigating Change and Making Life-Shaping Decisions
January and February 2008
SCWIST Workshop for Women Graduate Students and Postdocs
If you are a woman graduate student or postdoc in science or applied science who is making decisions about what to do next…
Mark your 2008 calendar for Tools for Transition: Navigating Change and Making Life-Shaping Decisions (see http://www.scwist.ca)
The first workshop of this 4-part series is a FULL DAY, and you will need to attend the first workshop in order to participate in the other three.
Space is very LIMITED. Register early. (Contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address))
NO registration at the door. You must be pre-register
Dates/Times/Costs:
| Title | Date | Time | Cost (SCWIST member) | Cost (SCWIST non-member) | SFU Harbour Centre Room |
| Looking Back to the Future* | Saturday January 12th | 9:00 to 4:00 FULL day | $20 | $30 | 2245 |
| Decision-Making during Transitions | Saturday January 26th | 9:00 to 1:00 | $10 | $15 | 2945 |
| Values: Anchor Yourself during Storms of Change | Saturday February 9th | 9:00 to 1:00 | $10 | $15 | 2245 |
| Your Future Career Story | Saturday February 23rd | 9:00 to 1:00 | $10 | $15 | 1315 |
*To register for the half-day sessions, you must attend the first session. Must be pre-registered.
***ONLY $40 for SCWIST Members who attend all four workshops
Where: SFU Harbour Centre (room number indicated)
Who: Women Graduate Students / Post docs in Science and Applied Science at SFU and UBC
Registration: Contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Looking Back to the Future (Saturday, January 12th FULL DAY 9:00 to 4:00)
• Map key events that have shaped your career
• Introduce a model for navigating through change
• Apply a model of decision-making to your transition point
Decision-Making during Transitions (Saturday, January 26th 9:00 to 1:00)
• Explore key influences that help or hinder you during times of change & decision-making
• Re-defining Success and Visioning an Ideal Work Day
• Your Career Story: identify key interests, skills, values and themes that have shaped your career so far
Values: Anchor Yourself during Storms of Change (Saturday, February 9th 9:00 to 1:00)
• Clarify and update your key work values, for life
• Explore the role money plays in career & life decisions
• Identify key themes about success as you prepare to make future decisions
Your Future Career Story (Saturday, February 23rd 9:00 to 1:00)
• Visioning Your Story of Success
• Clarifying the gaps between now and your future career story
• Review of Goals
• Creating an Action Plan
Note: There will be some reflective writing assignments between workshops
These workshops are sponsored by JADE and SCWIST with in-kind support from SFU.
Tools for Transitions: Navigating Change and Making Life-Changing Decisions
How can we use change as an opportunity to make meaningful decisions about our lives and careers? We are often called upon to make important choices during times of change, yet many of us resist moving forward because the experience of change – the transition – is confusing and uncomfortable. Transitioning from post graduate education to professional life may be unsettling yet this change may also hold potential to identify what is most important while letting go of beliefs and values that may not work for you anymore.
During these interactive sessions, you will have a chance to apply a practical model of transition to your own life and career changes in order to deepen your exploration of key career and life questions and to clarify what is important as you make decisions for the future.
During this series of 4 workshops you will have an opportunity to reflect, discuss and actively engage with other women in science and technology. The goal is to learn to identify what you need to put in place before making your next career.
During this series, you will:
• Review past decisions and influences as a way to clarify skills and interests for the future
• Clarify personal and work values
• Explore specific themes such as Money and Success
• Identify constraints that may limit new plans
• Create a grounded action plan for the future
Join us for this series of lively workshops that include discussion, activity, reflection and an opportunity to sort out what is important now, with other women in science and technology. Drawing from her popular career transition course called Working on Purpose Sally will engage you in a way of thinking about change and decision-making, so that you can experience them creatively and with purpose.
Sally Halliday, M.A. RCC (Counselling Psychology) is principal of Sally Halliday Counselling and Consulting Services. In addition to counselling individuals and couples in her private practice and Employee Assistance work, Sally develops and teaches courses at UBC Life and Career Centre. Sally combines her academic research on transitions with her practical experience as a teacher, counsellor and former journalist to help others who are making decisions during times of change. Sally teaches skiing in her spare time.
