Waterloo leads mining training program

Resource extraction and mining are cornerstones of the Canadian economy, but current extraction techniques come at a severe environmental price. Limiting environmental impacts is a priority for companies as they look to a new generation of professionals for ways to manage waste and water quality while maximizing efficiency.

The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) announced today that the it is awarding the University of Waterloo – along with five other Canadian universities and institutes – $1.65 million to establish TERRE CREATE (Training toward Environmentally Responsible Resource Extraction) through NSERC’s Collaborative, Research and Training Experience grant program.

Led by Professor David Blowes from Waterloo’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences a team of thirty-two Canadian researchers in the TERRE CREATE program combine two of NSERC’s priority areas: natural resources and environmental science and technology.

“TERRE CREATE is a unique program that will propel Canada and Canadian students to the forefront of sustainable resource extraction and mining on an international level,” said Blowes. 

The program will offer an unprecedented range of classroom, research and workshop opportunities for exceptional environmental science students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels as well as post-doctoral researchers.

Students will also benefit from industry research partnerships, internships and work placements aimed at delivering classroom knowledge straight to the field. Soft skill training, mentorship, multidisciplinary workshops, conferences, and field-site collaborative research projects are also designed to accelerate professional skill development and prepare students for employment upon graduation.

In addition to Waterloo, the program’s co-applicants include University of British Columbia, University of Alberta, University of Saskatchewan, and University of New Brunswick, Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Institut de Recherche en Mines et en Environnement (IRME), and the Canadian Circumpolar Institute (Alberta).

Collaborators include Shell Canada, AMEC, Canadian Light Source Inc., Diavik Diamond Mines Inc., Detour Gold Ltd., the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, the École Polytechnique, and the Universities of Queensland and Lule? Technical Universities . Collaborating Waterloo faculty members come from the departments of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Biology, Chemical Engineering and Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Students can apply to TERRE CREATE starting Fall 2014.

 

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Tales of a Teacher: Mary Louise McAllister

by Bailey Jacobs. This is the first of three Centre for Teaching Excellence Teaching Stories that will appear in the Daily Bulletin this week. The full versions of each piece first appeared on the Centre for Teaching Excellence's website.

A power outage is an unfavourable event and might lead to the premature adjourning of a class - but when the power went out during one of Dr. Mary Louise McAllister’s Faculty of Environment lectures, she didn’t blink an eye. Although she does use multi-media to enhance her classes, her teaching methods do not rely on bells and whistles – because, as she says, “you don’t need any of that to teach well!” She soldiered on in the dimly-lit classroom, relying on the tried-and-true teaching methods that she always uses. Her students claimed that her "blackout lecture" was one of the best of the whole course.

When McAllister started teaching approximately thirty years ago, she delivered lectures in the traditional “sage on the stage” manner. She shifted away from that pedagogical approach, however, when she realized that, as she puts it, “an instructor and their students can actually have fun when learning in the classroom!” Since making that change, she believes her lectures have evolved into lessons in collaborative learning, using combinations of different kinds of experiential or hands-on learning.

One day, for example, McAllister stopped mid-“lecture” and asked her class “Are you following me?” When her students acknowledged that things weren't fully clear, she put down her notes and declared, “Okay, we are now in city council,” assigned roles to her students, and began role playing a scenario to teach how local governments operate.

The verbal aspect of McAllister's teaching is not the cornerstone of her lesson; instead, the lesson is fundamentally focused on the students’ experiential learning. Ethical questioning, class discussions and debates, storytelling, music and group exercises are some of the elements that not only distinguish her lessons, but bring the engaging element of hands-on learning into her classroom. As a former student of McAllister, Graham Howell, elaborates, McAllister always “breaks down the traditional classroom style of lecturing.”

Her class field trips, such as a day trip on the local train to St. Jacobs and a trip to city hall, are other unique ways in which she creates both an interactive and educational atmosphere for her students. McAllister asserts that “it is better for students to go and observe a city council meeting for themselves… because that is more effective than me telling them what goes on during a city council meeting.” This affirms her belief that personal experiences are an integral part of a student’s learning process.

The emphasis on experiential learning extends beyond the lessons; it is the fundamental umbrella under which all aspects of McAllister’s courses reside. For example, ERS210, a qualitative methods course (a companion course to ERS 211, a quantitative course taught by colleague Steve Murphy), has one major term-long project where the students are responsible for going out into the local community to undertake primary qualitative research.

McAllister’s students augment their understanding of qualitative research methods learned in class by working hands-on in the community, thereby directly applying their knowledge. But McAllister wants to ensure that the learning doesn't stop there. "What is sometimes missing in courses," she says, "is effective peer-to-peer communications to share what has been learned. After all, the best way to learn subject matter is to have to teach it.” Accordingly, she has her students give term-end presentations to teach each other. McAllister believes this peer-teaching process helps her students actively engage in deep learning.

If you ask McAllister about the pedagogical skills she has acquired throughout her career, she will provide some simple take-away points: “Have faith in your students, set your expectations high, and they will always rise to the occasion. Lastly, let go in the classroom and learn from your students.”

 

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Remembering UWaterloo alumnus Andrei Anghel

By: Staff

University of Waterloo alumnus Andrei Anghel was tragically among those killed when Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 was downed in Ukraine on Thursday, July 17.

According to reports, Anghel (B.Sc., ’12) was studying medicine in Romania, and was among the approximately 100 researchers whose lives were lost in the passenger flight from the Netherlands en route to Malaysia.

Remembered by Waterloo’s Professor Brion Dixon, who taught Anghel, as “a very keen student,” Anghel’s death has “shocked and saddened” the entire University of Waterloo community, as President Feridun Hamdullahpur expressed in a statement on Friday.

Read President Hamdullahpur’s full statement online.

The Daily Bulletin expresses its profound condolences to Mr. Anghel’s family and friends.

 

 

 

 

 

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