LFS Today Feb 16, 2021

Lunch & Learn Series: Developing an Equity Competency in Sustainable Food Systems Education: Exploring a New Model and Sharing Teaching Activities with Will Valley

This session will be held on Friday, February 19, 2021 at noon.

Addressing social inequities has been recognized as foundational to transforming food systems. Activists and scholars have critiqued food movements as lacking an orientation towards addressing issues of social justice. To address issues of inequity, sustainable food systems education (SFSE) programs will have to increase students’ equity-related capabilities.

In this session, we will review findings from a recent study (Valley et al. 2020) in which the authors reviewed SFSE program documents to determine the extent to which SFSE programs in the USA and Canada address equity. We will then discuss the dimensions of the proposed equity competency model and explore examples of activities from our teaching practices that support the development of future professionals capable of dismantling inequity in the food system.  

Reference: Valley, W., Anderson, M., Blackstone, N.T., Sterling, E., Betley, E., Akabas, S., Koch, P., Dring, C., Burke, J. and Spiller, K., 2020. Towards an equity competency model for sustainable food systems education programs. Elem Sci Anth, 8(1), p.33.

Join LFS Instructor Will Valley and the Learning Centre team this Friday to understand and discuss how to address the social inequity issues through education. To register for the session please visit https://ubc.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5cscumsqDwrG9OI5NHXco_FeqnmI0pzdWM1

Reminder: LFS Curriculum Change – Feb 26 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, Feb 26 , 2021.

• Note: ***LAST SUBMISSION date for LFS Curriculum Committee review before SEPTEMBER 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 18, 2020
• October 16, 2020
• November 20, 2020
• December 18, 2020
• January 22, 2021
• February 26, 2021 ***LAST SUBMISSION date for Committee review before SEPT 2021***

Please add these dates to your calendars. Proposals submitted after the LFS Jan 22, 2021 deadline may not be approved in time to be included in the UBC Academic Calendar for the following September.

Random Acts of Recognition

Congratulations to Random Acts of Recognition recipients:

Pierre Girod, Warren Wong, Jimmy Ha and Martina Claussen for all of their help in the massive cleanup process in the 218 and 328 labs. This has been a huge undertaking, and the whole area has been redesigned to support new research methodology and collaboration within the Plant-Insect Ecology & Evolution lab.

To nominate a faculty member, staff or graduate student that’s been doing an outstanding job or has gone above and beyond in some way, send an email to lfs.recognition@ubc.ca and tell us why this person should be recognized. We’ll send them a $6 Starbucks gift card and acknowledge their good work in LFS Today.

LFS Scholar Series with Dr. Jean-Loup Rault

Wednesday, March 10, 2021 – 9:00-10:30am (includes Q&A)
Click here to register.

Guest Speaker: Jean-Loup Rault, Professor and Head, Institute of Animal Welfare Science, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria

Guest Seminar Topic: Be kind to others: prosocial behaviours and their implications for animal welfare

If you have any questions, please contact Shelley Small at shelley.small@ubc.ca.

Nominate an Outstanding Student, Faculty Member, or Staff as an Unsung Hero

President Santa Ono is looking for “Unsung Heroes” – outstanding students, faculty and staff who are helping the university achieve its goals, helping out in the community, or otherwise going above and beyond to make the world a better place.

Unsung Heroes will be featured in Santa’s weekly video address.

To nominate a student or colleague, email karen.lee98@ubc.ca and mention what makes them a great candidate!

NSERC Prizes – Call for Nominations

NSERC is pleased to announce that nominations are now being accepted for the Herzberg, Brockhouse, Polanyi and Strickland prizes. The nomination deadline for all four prizes is April 1, 2021.

NSERC has established these prizes to recognize and celebrate exceptional research. Specific awards focus on accomplishments that range from interdisciplinary accomplishments to lifetime achievements and influence.

We invite you to share this call for applications broadly and inclusively with your university community to encourage a diverse range of top researchers or teams as candidates for the following prizes:

• The Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering is awarded annually for both the sustained excellence and overall influence of research work conducted in Canada in the natural sciences or engineering.
• The NSERC John C. Polanyi Award honours an individual or team whose Canadian-based research has led to a recent outstanding advance in the natural sciences or engineering.
• The Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering recognizes outstanding Canadian teams from different disciplines who came together to engage in research drawing on their combined knowledge and skills, and produced a record of excellent achievements in the natural sciences and engineering in the last six years.
• Newly announced in 2020, the NSERC Donna Strickland Prize for Societal Impact of Natural Sciences and Engineering Research honours an individual or team whose research in Canada has led to exceptional benefits for Canadians.

Canadian Nutrition Society Upcoming Webinars

The Canadian Nutrition Society (CNS) is hosting a series of upcoming webinars, free to all participants.

February 19, 2021 – 12:00 – 13:00 (ET)
Improved Efficiency, Safety, Nutrition and Cost: The Case for a Plant-Based Menu in Child Care: A Case Study
More info.

February 23, 2021 – 12:00 – 13:00 (ET)
COVID-19 happened. Now what? The pandemic’s legacy on our relation with proteins
More info.

March 01, 2021 – 13:00 – 14:00 (ET)
Canada’s Commitment to the Production of Sustainable Protein
More info.

March, 11 2021 – 12:00 – 13:00 (ET)
Medical Nutrition Therapy in the 2020 Canadian Obesity Guidelines
More info.

March 17, 2021 – 12:00 -13:00 (ET)
COVID-19, Nutrition and Lifestyle Factors in the Canadian Population
More info.

March 18, 2021 – 9:30 – 11:00 (ET)
Digging in to the social and environmental factors that shape eating patterns: Implications for health and the environment
More info.