And so the Spring Issue of another Wat On Earth rolls around again. Like most other Ontario universities our department has lost faculty and staff due to the cutbacks in the Provincial budget. Waterloo lost 140 faculty and 200 staff to "early retirements" as many senior members decided to head out into the great pasture before something less attractive appears on the horizon. This fall will see us with four less faculty and four less staff members. The survivors are scrambling to see just how courses can be amalgamated, eliminated or re-structured to provide our students with an adequate education which will provide a necessary substitute for what cannot be taught. One of the casualties in this exercise is Peter Russell, the co-editor and "mover and shaker" of WAT ON EARTH. Peter will be taking early retirement, but he has assured me that he will be around (thank goodness) to assist with the fall Issue and, hopefully, to take the newsletter into our second decade in 1997.
I'd like to mention to teachers in southern Ontario and the adjacent United States that there will be a joint session of the National Association of Science Teachers (USA) and the Science Teachers Association of Ontario at the Royal York Hotel and at the Convention Centre in Toronto this fall. The dates are Thursday November 21 to Saturday November 23. Peter and I have put together a one-day session which will cover a number of interesting aspects of the Earth Sciences and how different areas of this subject affect our daily lives. Speakers will feature prominent Canadian geoscientists and will come from as far afield as Vancouver, Calgary and Ottawa. In order to find out more about the conference look at the WAT ON EARTH Web Page which is located at the URL under the title on the front cover of this issue. In brief, the session will be starting at 9:30 on Friday November 22 and will conclude in the late afternoon with speakers occupying 30 minute slots. The Earth Sciences presentation will be in the British Columbia Room at the Royal York Hotel. The STAO is always an impressive venue with many displays by publishers, science exhibitors and universities, and this year it should be particularly busy with many colleagues attending from south of the border.
Speaking of Web Sites I hope that you will continue to look at Wat On Earth on the Web. The issue is a little different from the "printed page" version, and it presents Alexis, Peter and I with different challenges as we prepare the conversion from the paper to electronic versions. Actually we know that a number of you have been looking at the Web site, because we have had a number of comments returned with your subscription renewals. I've put a few of these in the lines below.
- From Quintin Wight in Ottawa; - More on mineral para-genesis and/or fossils of the eastern Ontario region - especially the recent fish of Green's Creek.
- From CHAT in Toronto: - More on unusual features found in southern Ontario and where to visit these, i.e. Karst topography, (caves, sinkholes); Frontenac Axis.
- From Bill Rogers, Humberview School, Bolton; - I really like your section on Web sites.
-
From
Philip
Schroeder,
Black
Forest
Academy,
Germany:-
WAT
ON
EARTH
is
very
informative,
it
has
such
a
wealth
of
information
that
we
would
like
to
make
more
useable
to
our
students.
We
have
most
of
the
issues
dating
back
to
1989.
Can
you
tell
me
if
there
if
an
index
is
available
and
its'
cost?
The answer to this one is "no", but if we can find the time we can try to put one up on the web! - AVM - From Karen Strachen, Mentor College, Mississauga: - I think your journal is excellent and I am always photocopying articles for a supplement to the grade 11 Physical Geography course! You have an excellent variety of articles, the only comment I can make is, from a personal viewpoint, I would like to see more issues!
(And of course there are many more)!
Peter and I enjoy seeing these responses and we are trying our best to respond to them. Our fall Issue will be a special one aimed at connecting the interface between the Earth Sciences and some of our sister sciences. We hope that you have a happy, fun and rock-filled summer, and perhaps we will have the opportunity of seeing some of you at the NAST/STAO meeting at the Royal York in November!
AVM