LFS Today Dec 2, 2021

 News  

Nominate LFS Service Award winners by today!

Remember to recognize your LFS colleagues for their work!  Categories are Shynkaryk Service Award (staff), Richards Service Award (faculty) and Graduate Student Service Award.

To make a nomination: https://ubc.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_2awS2wRNOiHBApM

Reminder: LFS Curriculum Change – December 3rd Deadline

Time again to submit any Curriculum Change Proposals you are considering.

Proposals can include a variety of changes to an LFS course or program, from changing the title of a course to adding a new program.

Please forward your Curriculum Change requests to Virginia Frankian by 12 noon, Dec 3rd, 2021

The process for curriculum change is:

• Create the proposal using the Curriculum Proposal Form (2-Column form;https://senate.ubc.ca/vancouver/curriculum-submission-guide/curriculum-forms).
  You can find the guidelines in the Downloads sidebar on the right-hand side of the page.
• Obtain approvals from your disciplinary group (e.g., applied animal biology, food science, and food and resources economics groups) followed by your corresponding Program (APBI, FRE, and FNH).
• Submit the approved form to the LFS Curriculum Committee via Virginia Frankian (virginia.frankian@ubc.ca). If needed, the Curriculum Committee will return the proposal to the originator for clarification or revision.
• Proposal approved by the Committee will be presented to the LFS Faculty Council at its meetings for approval.
• For a Category 1 change (e.g. new course and new degree program), a proposal approved by the Faculty Council typically requires external unit and library consultation, and budgetary approval. Subsequently, the proposal will be submitted to the Senate Curriculum Sub-committee, then to the Senate Curriculum Committee and finally to the Senate for approval.
• For a Category 2 change, a proposal approved by the Faculty Council will be submitted to the relevant Senate Curriculum Sub-Committee for approval.

The Curriculum Proposal review and approval process, especially Category 1 change, is a long one. Items can go through edits at any level, and be sent back to the originator for corrections. Some Proposals require consultations with outside parties.

For these reasons, it is important to plan and submit your Proposal as early as possible. Please find the Curriculum Change Proposal submission deadline schedule for the upcoming year below:

• September 8^th , 2021
• September 24^th , 2021
• October 29^th , 2021
• December 3, 2021
• January 21, 2022
• February 25, 2022

Please add these dates to your calendars. Proposals submitted after the LFS Jan 21, 2022 deadline may not be approved in time to be included in the UBC Academic Calendar for the following September.

Random Acts of Recognition

Under the amazing direction of Xinyan Fan, two dietetics student prospective sessions were hosted with tremendous enthusiasm with prospective students for both the dietetics undergraduate program (supported by LFS student services Ella Wong and Rob Kim) and for Master of Nutrition and Dietetic prospective students (supported by LFS Graduate and Postdoctoral Study coordinators Lia Maria Dragan and Iris Li). The dietetics program is very appreciative for your time and expertise, and most of all for all the support you provide our prospective students.

Teaching Theory Thursday

“Make self-reflection a part of the end of the term teaching process. Self-reflection helps you retain the insights you’ve gained along the way as you have been teaching the current course, and it will inspire you to seek out new approaches; you’ll feel more comfortable, confident, and engaged next semester.”

– Academy of Art University, http://faculty.academyart.edu/faculty/teaching-topics/teaching-curriculum/enhancing-teacher-student-interaction/end-of-semester-reflection.html

Brought to you from the Learning Centre

 Events  

Today – LFS Scholar Series: Florence Kondylis

Please note: Florence Kondylis is unable to present in person due to travel restrictions but will continue to present via Zoom. Attendees are still invited to gather in MCML 160 to view the stream if they wish to.

Title: Retargeting Agricultural Investments: Evidence from Impact Evaluations at Scale

Abstract: What constraints limit the adoption of productive technologies among smallholder farmers? In her talk, Dr Kondylis will discuss the evidence gathered from large-scale experiments with farmers across a variety of country contexts. Specifically, she will describe how Impact evaluations were leveraged as a policy tool to elicit different constraints to adoption of proven technologies and estimate the effectiveness of interventions in promoting smallholder farmers’ growth.

Biography: Dr. Florence Kondylis is a Senior Economist and Research Program Manager at the Development Impact Evaluation department (DIME) at the World Bank.  Dr. Kondylis studied applied math at Paris Dauphine, received a magistère in economics from Paris 1-ENS Ulm-EHESS (aka, Paris School of Economics), a PhD in economics from the University of London, and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Columbia University. Dr. Kondylis’ main interests are in development, labor, conflict and agricultural economics. Dr. Kondylis founded and lead the Bank’s impact evaluation program in Agricultural Adaptations, which is run in close collaboration with researchers and practitioners across a large number of donor institutions, governments, NGOs, and academic institutions. Dr. Kondylis also co-founded DIME Analytics to help generate and curate more, better data for impact evaluation.

Thursday, December 2
4-5pm

This presentation will be streamed in MCML 160.
OR
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 677 8820 6346
Passcode: 758385

Dec. 15 – How to get students to stop thinking about grades, and focus on learning instead

Please join us for our next Skylight Online Teaching Series event, presented by Firas Moosvi (CMPS, UBCO), Celeste Leander (BOTA/ZOOL, UBCV), Jackie Stewart (CHEM, UBCV), Brian Hunt (IOF, UBCV), Caitlin Donnelly (BOTA, UBCV), Marcia Graves (MBIM, UBCV), Montserrat Rueda-Becerril (CHEM, UBCV), and Taylor Wright (CHEM, UBCV).

Abstract:
In “The Trouble with Rubrics”, Alfie Kohn writes: “Research shows three reliable effects when students are graded: They tend to think less deeply, avoid taking risks, and lose interest in the learning itself.”

Getting students to focus on learning instead of grades seems like a daunting and insurmountable task. But who can blame them? Our systems, structures, and policies are all centred around grades and the fallacies of their inherent “fairness”. In this interactive session, we will share our experiences of how we refocused students’ attention on rich, high-quality feedback instead of grades. Examples from biology, science writing, and data science will be presented. We will also discuss the challenges and opportunities of our approaches, and facilitate a discussion on how we can start working on broader structural changes to recentre higher education on learning, rather than grades.

Date: Wednesday, December 15, 2:00pm–3:30pm
Registration link: https://ubc.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5AsdOihrT8rEt0XybnYPy_LYaz19tXUbCnq

Note: This session will not be recorded, but we will post slides on the Skylight website following the session.

 Deadlines  

Jan. 5 – Lab2Market NSERC – A New Research Commercialization Opportunity

Lab2Market (L2M) Program is excited to announce that applications for Lab2Market NSERC program are now live! This program is delivered in partnership with the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and is an extension of the Idea to Innovation (I2I) Market Assessment Grant.

This 4-month program offers:

• Curriculum (lectures, talks, and workshops) designed to introduce researchers to the world of entrepreneurship.
• An advisor network (founders, industry leaders, and service providers) to help researchers through their business venture.
• A community of like-minded entrepreneurs.
• $20,000 in funding to support researchers in getting their idea off the ground.
• The opportunity for future funding through the NSERC I2I Phase I grant.

The first cohort is scheduled to run in March 2022 with applications closing on January 5th, 2022. To apply please visit the application page.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to wkosiba@ryerson.ca.

Jan. 17 – PICS Internship Program

The Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS) is proud to continue supporting BC organizations to pursue their climate action efforts through our Internship Program.

PICS internships support the hiring of university students at the workplaces of British Columbia governments, NGOs, industry and communities that are pursuing climate change mitigation and adaptation research, planning or implementation.
These internships provide students with vital experience and exposure in a competitive growth job market, while helping our solution seeker partners advance climate change solution-focused projects and initiatives.

PICS internships provide $12,000 to BC provincial, regional, and local governments, and BC-based non-governmental agencies, indigenous communities, private companies and Crown corporations to hire a student intern for a minimum of 13 weeks, or an alternative arrangement that distributes an equivalent number of total hours. Successful applicants may top up this contribution to provide an appropriate wage for the student’s level of education and experience.

Eligible students must be enrolled – or accepted for enrolment – in a full-time undergraduate or graduate program at one of the four PICS partner institutions: UVic, UBC, SFU or UNBC.

The deadline to submit the application is January 17, 2022. Notification of decisions is anticipated by mid-February 2022.

For complete information about this annual call please read the Internship Program Guide and submit an Internship Application Form, or visit the PICS website. Inquiries can be made by emailing picsintern@uvic.ca.