Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Social Impact Showcase features GreenHouse Fellows

This term's Social Impact Showcase will be celebrating the achievements of the 2016 GreenHouse Fellows, a talented group of innovators who are members of an accelerated social entrepreneurship program. The Showcase is hosted by St. Paul’s GreenHouse, a social impact incubator at the University of Waterloo, and takes place on Thursday, July 28 from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in St. Paul's Alumni Hall.

The Fellows have made tremendous strides on their startups and will be sharing their progress. Select Fellows also will be awarded Social Impact Fund grants for their next steps.

The GreenHouse Fellows are working on a variety of social justice and environmental issues, including:

• A smart mattress that detects the formation of, and therefore prevents, bedsores (Curiato);
• The integration of support systems for youth living with Autism Spectrum Disorders (SUNSHINE);
• Public art installations that teach people about local food systems and sustainability (EcoArtCo);
• The development of therapeutic performances for long-term care homes (Saakshi Innovations); and
• Creating healthy, natural, and ethically sourced skin care products with repurposed materials (Bee Balm)

The Fellowship program, which is financially supported by Libro Credit Union Prosperity Fund, is offered exclusively from May to August for those who have the ability to work on their social ventures full-time. The first cohort of GreenHouse Fellows has seen four ventures expand their operations and secure office space within the Velocity Garage in downtown Kitchener. 

Light refreshments will be provided, so please register in advance.

Tales of a Teacher: Kelly Anthony

by Kelly Stone. This is the first of two Centre for Teaching Excellence Teaching Stories that will appear in this week's Daily Bulletin.

Teaching requires a great deal of time and consideration to ensure that it’s effective for students. Presenting content to students so that it infuses them with a passion for learning, instead of just focussing on transcripts or grades, is a teaching goal that Dr. Kelly Anthony strives toward. Having spent the past several years immersed and engaged in research on teaching, much of which has helped her fine-tune her own teaching practice, Anthony can rightly say, “I’m an instructor, but I’m also fairly knowledgeable about pedagogy. I have a clear understanding of why the way I, and others, teach tends to be effective.” As the current Teaching Fellow for the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, Anthony is working to share her knowledge of effective teaching in the hopes that it will ultimately enhance the learners’ experience.

In her courses on social justice and the determinants of health, Anthony enacts a fundamental belief: telling isn’t teaching. As she points out, “Our students are a digital generation so they know how to find information. I don’t need to passively transmit information to them; that’s not teaching. So I take my responsibility seriously when I say I’m educating them.” Anthony’s teaching practice is learner-centred, meaning that her focus is not simply on the delivery of content but rather on meeting the learning needs of her students. When asked why she takes this learner-centred approach, Anthony says that she “loves the opportunity to help students develop their ability to think critically by giving them opportunities to practice – to take aim at the mark and miss a few times before they get good.”

As a Teaching Fellow, Anthony is determined to cultivate a community of practice across and beyond her home faculty, where instructors can share strategies about enhancing teaching. Accordingly, Anthony has developed a Teaching Champion Team, consisting of two members from each department in the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences. At their monthly meetings, members discuss teaching and broker ideas between the team and their departments, encouraging further communities of practice. Anthony hopes that the teams then "go back into their home departments to create momentum, inspiration, and support for committed and strong teaching.”

Anthony’s passion for teaching and community is appreciated by the students who have had the opportunity to take her courses. Peter Kocandrle, former HLTH 260 student, explains that, “Dr. Anthony, through the use of a social lens, was the professor who applied a distinctive approach which opened the door to an understanding of health yet to be discovered by me. Apart from her engaging teaching style, Dr. Anthony has always been more than willing to engage in thought-provoking conversation outside of classroom time.” This passion for being engaged with students undoubtedly arises from Anthony’s conviction that “the ideas that students are exposed to now will shape their lives, careers, and the way they think about the world.”

Notes as classes end and the dog days of summer begin

Today is the last day of lectures for the term, and students will have a few pre-examination study days to review their notes before final examinations begin on Tuesday, August 2. But there are still things happening on campus, including:

The University of Waterloo's Automated External Defibrillator (AED) Committee has invited members of the University community to a presentation and demonstration of AED technology today.

"AEDs have been proven to dramatically increase the chances of a successful outcome for a cardiac arrest patient," writes committee member Rebecca Boyd. "Recent research presented at the 2016 Emergency Cardiac Care Conference showed the important of bystander intervention and early defibrillation. Having an AED close by is an important aspect of this occurring."

The short presentation takes place today from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Student Life Centre's multi-purpose room and includes a demonstration of the available AED units. Attendees will learn about the benefits of putting an AED in their faculty, department, or building.

Currently, there are 55 AEDs located on the University's main campus, its satellite campuses, and in its residences.

Drop by the SLC multi-purpose room today and learn more about the initiative to make Waterloo a "Heart Smart Campus."

The University of Waterloo Staff Association would like to remind its members that Wednesday, July 27 is the deadline to apply for the Chief Returning Officer (CRO) position.

The position's term of office runs from August 9, 2016 to February 9, 2017.