Monday, July 27, 2015

Tales of a Teacher: Jason Grove

By Sophie Twardus. This is the first of five Centre for Teaching Excellence Teaching Stories that will appear in the Daily Bulletin over the next two weeks.

Most instructors have a metaphor that embodies their approach to teaching. Sometimes they’re conscious of this metaphor, but sometimes not. Either way, it informs and imbues how they teach. In the case of Dr. Jason Grove – who teaches chemical engineering – he identifies his teaching metaphor as that of the guide: “Teaching is about guiding other people to learn. Learning is a personal journey that you have to undertake for yourself.”

Grove uses case studies to guide his students along their learning journeys. Case studies – which are accounts of real-life situations that feature relevant stakeholders and their competing interests – might initially seem out of place in a chemical engineering course, at least if we assume that such courses focus only on molecules and materials. However, Grove’s courses focus on the environment: what negative effects certain chemical procedures might have on the environment, how to minimize those effects, and even what the legal ramifications might be. Needless to say, in such situations there is no simple “right” answer. That in itself is a valuable lesson for the students, who often initially expect Grove to supply them with the “correct” evaluation of the case study. The case studies, however, are necessarily ambiguous, which makes them reflect the murky realities that students will encounter in the workplace.

“Students,” says Grove, "aren’t sure how to approach the issues that are represented in a case study, and that uncertainty is what makes cases valuable. A case study gets students to think about the process they are using, about their assumptions, and about whether the results look sensible."

Even after students work through a case study, Grove is loath to provide them with a “tidy” answer. “I’m resistant to lecturing the ‘correct’ answer afterwards,” he says, “because that implies that there is a single, ‘real’ answer.” Instead, Grove and his students engage in some “wrap up,” to bring closure to the case and to ensure that all the relevant aspects have been considered.

Grove notes that case studies are a form of “active learning,” and the critical thinking that students develop by working with them are, in his view, the most important skill they learn. “They need to be able to take evidence, evaluate it, and draw their own conclusions.”

With Jason Grove, students are certainly in the hands of an expert guide as they undertake their journey of learning. 

IDEAS Summer Experience now in its second year

This is an excerpt of an article that was originally published on the Waterloo International news site.

Last week twenty international high school students from eight countries arrived in Waterloo to take part in IDEAS,

a two-week summer enrichment program designed for high school students from around the world. Over the two-week program, which runs from July 12 – July 26, IDEAS Summer Experience participants attend lectures and workshops and learn valuable skills that will help develop their big ideas to try and solve some of the world’s most serious challenges. IDEAS encompasses academic programming from all six faculties and teaches participants about innovation and entrepreneurship as well as exposing them to what it is like to attend a North American University. Twelve males and eight females have joined IDEAS from China, Turkey, Indonesia, Bermuda, Ghana, Jordan, Hong Kong and Singapore.

IDEAS is a very immersive and interdisciplinary program in which participants can enjoy the best of what UWaterloo has to offer in a wide range of subjects and disciplines. Participants attended lectures and workshops from many of UWaterloo’s renowned professors and staff. Amongst the many guest lecturers for IDEAS was Ron McCarville, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies and Professor in Recreation and Leisure Studies, who presented on how decisions we make in our daily life affect our health. Linda Carson, who helped develop the Knowledge Integration program, presented on creativity and ideation and how to think creatively to solve problems. Geoff Malleck in the Faculty of Arts lectured on creativity, entrepreneurship and team dynamics. Participants also took part in interactive workshops such as learning about Ecology by taking water samples from Laurel Creek and learning about body language and movement with Andrew Houston, Associate Professor in Drama and Speech Communication. Participants spend time most days with instructors from Renison’s English language program learning about leadership skills, research techniques, collaboration and critical thinking, just to name a few. Last week, participants also toured Velocity Garage to learn more about Waterloo’s innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem and attended the Velocity Fund Finals on July 23^rd.

Read the rest of the article on the Waterloo International website.

Scientists gather for NanoMRI conference this week

The fifth annual NanoMRI Conference is set for July 27 to July 31 and promises to bring together an interdisciplinary community of scientists and engineers researching in the field of ultrasensitive spin detection and nanoscale magnetic resonance imaging.

This year’s speakers are a select group from three communities:

• Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy (MRFM);
• Optically-Detected Magnetic Resonance (ODMR) using nitrogen vacancy (NV) centre; and
• Quantum nano mechanics.

Topics at this year’s conference include an overview of present-day nanoscale microscopy technology, novel mechanical resonators, and ferromagnetic microscopy, to name a few.

The conference is taking place at the Mike and Ophelia Lazaridis Quantum-Nano Centre.