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Teaching Science from the Back of the Room - Using an Air Tame Device and Virtual White Board
No full textDo you ever feel trapped when using the white board? Feeling there is a barrier between you and your students? I have found a better way. Using an Air Tame device to connect wirelessly an iPad to the multi-media projector, I am able to move anywhere in the classroom and reach all students. I have used this technology in several different classrooms on campus and it works well. In this session, I will also demonstrate how the system works, and how the virtual whiteboard applications Explain Everything works. A benefit of this applications is the ability to record the lectures so students can view after the class for review
“Who Now Shall Believe That Liar, Merlin?”: The Prophecies of Merlin in History
Get PDFThis research article examines Merlin\u27s prophecies and how their political use has shifted from one of belief and of direct political significance, to general disbelief. It examines how the use of prophecy exploited the prestige of King Arthur and Merlin. Tactics used to take advantage of this prestige ranged from rulers claiming blood relation to King Arthur to learned men interpreting existing prophecies. Sources, such as Wace, Geoffrey of Monmouth, and modern day novelists, are used to illustrate the prophecies’ evolution from the twelfth to the twentieth century and what it means
Breaking Down the Silo: Scheduling PBL for High School Courses
No full textBC’s new educational curriculum has a clear directive for schools to follow: teach “a curriculum that enables and supports increasingly personalized learning, through quality teaching and learning, flexibility and choice, and high standards” (https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/sites/curriculum.gov.bc.ca/files/pdf/curriculum_intro.pdf). Many schools have looked to Project Based Learning (PBL) options and teaching models to help achieve this directive with much success. However, PBL becomes much more difficult to incorporate at senior grade levels (high school) due, in part, to scheduling norms and seemingly inherent classroom and subject restrictions. This presentation will share the successes, failures, and reflections from a pilot project currently being implemented by one local Independent school (Kamloops Christian School) that attempts to break down this traditional high school course scheduling model to better address the new BC Curriculum directives by creating week long, dual course, PBL based course offerings for its high school students. These course offerings mix two seemingly unrelated high school courses together (ex: Science and Leadership 10, or Career Ed. and Environmental Science 12) which are then taught by both of their respective course classroom teachers collaboratively. All other courses in the student’s regular schedules are put “on hold” and these courses are taught instead all day for week long timeframes multiple times in the year. This presentation will attempt to share the learnings gleaned by the school during the implementation of such a schedule
Reconciling Place
No full textWhat threads, if any, weave between place-based education and education’s need to address the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action? In a culturally diverse educational institution such as TRU, is there a path that educators of settler and Indigenous descent can walk together in order to reconcile place? The work of Truth and Reconciliation is not easy and risks such pitfalls as cultural taxation on Indigenous colleagues as well as unintended violation of traditional protocol. This roundtable presentation will describe how a group of TRU educators from diverse backgrounds and disciplines recognized that a potential first step in this journey was to build compassion for and understanding of each other. Given that the one thing we all knew how to do was read (perhaps unsurprising given our occupations), we decided to read, in a book club format, two documents simultaneously: Secwepemc People, Land and Laws by Marianne and Ron Ignace and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission\u27s Calls to Action. Reading these two documents in this format not only allowed us to take the first steps towards building a community of practice around reconciling place, it also allowed us to share concrete details of how we might integrate a growing understanding of Secwepemc language, placenames and names of plants and animals into our individual teaching practices. Of course, if reading has provided us with a first direction on the path to reconciling place, we know that it cannot end with these two documents. Thus, the purpose of this roundtable presentation is twofold: (1) to highlight this reading adventure to date, including its opportunities and difficulties and (2) to use the collective wisdom of all participants to generate a more comprehensive list of material that could support communities reading for reconciliation
Effects of Group Size on Vigilance, Foraging, and Aggressive Behaviour in Wintering Aggregations of Canada Geese
No full textDuring winter, flocks of Canada geese (Branta canadensis) are common near the rivers that flow through Kamloops. At night, birds gather on the rivers, but during the day they fly into the fields and parks close to the river to feed. As the geese forage, they form groups or flocks of different sizes. This presentation examines some of the hypotheses that have been developed to explain the differences in the size of these flocks. One common hypothesis to explain different group sizes in animals is called the “Many Eyes” hypothesis. It suggests that in larger groups, individuals need to spend less time looking for predators and therefore can spend more time feeding. To test this hypothesis in Canada geese, we videotaped flocks at four locations: MacArthur Island, Riverside Park, Charles Anderson Park, and the Mount Paul golf course. Two-minute segments of these tapes were analyzed by counting the number of seconds each individual of the flock spent either alert, briefly scanning for predators, feeding, resting, or being aggressive. Our results show that as flock size increases, the per capita time that birds spend in alert or scanning behaviour decreases as expected. Also, as expected, the per capita time forging increases. However, for some intermediate flock sizes the per capita forging time goes down and the per capita vigilance increases again. The reasons for such reversals in vigilance and foraging in larger flocks are discussed
The Effects of Yeast Inoculum on Wine Fermentation and Organoleptic Properties of Frontenac Blanc
No full textThe aim of this study is to characterize the influence of yeast inoculum on the fermentation process and organoleptic properties of Frontenac Blanc. The commercially available yeast, Zymaflore Delta, was used to inoculate three 10 L batches of Frontenac Blanc that included wild yeast, compared to three batches containing only wild yeast. Both sets were fermented at 20°C for thirty-one days until the specific gravity dropped by 1.102 and 1.114, to 1.004 and 1.006, respectively. This corresponds to an estimated alcohol content of 12.9% and 14.2% for the commercial and wild fermentations. Other parameters monitored during fermentation were pH, volatile acidity, titratable acidity-free sulfur content, residual sugar and concentration of primary amino acids; the final ethanol content will be determined using gas chromatography coupled to a flame ionization detector. These were statistically analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey’s honest significance test to determine the impact of the commercial inoculum on fermentation properties. Following fermentation, the wine was chilled at 4°C for six weeks to settle the yeast, and bottled. The resulting wines differed in their organoleptic properties: the wild ferment had a citrus and tropical fruit taste and a light body, while the commercial ferment had more bitterness, a less intense fruit flavour, and a medium body. The aromas were similar; however, the wild ferment had a heightened orange and pineapple smell compared to the commercial ferment with hints of citrus and tropical fruit. This shows that yeast inoculum can have an effect on both the fermentation and organoleptic properties of Frontenac Blanc
Theoretical Study of the Secondary Antioxidant Activity of Aminoguanidine
No full textGlycation (or nonenzymatic glycosylation) is a natural process in which sugars in the bloodstream attach to nucleophilic groups present in proteins, lipids or DNA, forming harmful new molecules that are related to various diseases. The main mechanisms to inhibit glycation are believed to be the scavenging of carbonyl and radical species and the chelation of metal ions such as Cu(II) and Fe(III). Aminoguanidine is known to be a glycation inhibitor. Its free radical activity has been recently studied.
The thermodynamic stability of the various complexes aminoguanidine can form with Cu(II) and Fe(III) under physiological pH conditions in a polar environment is explored. Calculations are performed at the M05/6-31++G(d,p) level of theory combined with the SMD continuum solvation model. We aim to identify the most thermodynamically stable complexes and to explore the secondary antioxidant capacity of aminoguanidine.
Aminoguanidine is said to have secondary antioxidant capacity if, by forming a complex with Cu(II) or Fe(III), it can slow down the initial step (the copper- or iron-catalyzed Haber-Weiss reaction) of the reaction sequence shown below and reduce the potential damage caused by •OH radical formation in the second step (the Fenton reaction).
Cu(H2O)42+ or Fe(H2O)63+ + O2•− → Cu(H2O)4+ or Fe(H2O)62+ + O2
Cu(H2O)4+ or Fe(H2O)62+ + H2O2 → Cu(H2O)42+ or Fe(H2O)63+ + OH- + •O
Revisiting the Taboo of Regifting: A Replication Study
No full textMany people have been in the position of receiving a gift that is either unwanted or better suited for someone else. An option would be to regift the item, but there is a stigma surrounding regifting, and is it worse than throwing something away? This study will be conducted to understand where the negative emotions associated with regifting arise from. We seek to replicate previous research by Adams et al. (2012) on the effects of regifting versus throwing an unwanted gift away, on perceived level of offensiveness. We shall recruit 176 participants via social media to complete an online survey where participants will be randomly assigned to take the perspective of a giver or a receiver of a gift. They will read a scenario where the gift, a wristwatch, is either regifted or destroyed. Participants will rate how offensive the outcome is, given their perspective (either as the giver or the receiver of the gift). Based on findings by Adams et al. (2012), we predict participants will view destroying gifts as worse than regifting them. Specifically, we predict that givers will perceive destroying gifts as more offensive than regifting, whereas receivers will perceive regifting and destroying gifts as equivalent. The findings of our research may aid consumers in both saving money and reducing their ecological footprints through regifting. Future research should consider the emotions associated with regifting from a developmental perspective, as givers’ and receivers’ views on regifting may change as children develop theory of mind
The Role of Peri-Hand Space in the Development of Visually-Guided Hand Movements
No full textIn young children, reach and grasp movements are guided by touch, but they gradually come under visual guidance later in development. How and when this transition occurs is still unclear. We propose that a phenomenon known as peri-hand space may facilitate this transition. Peri-hand space is the space surrounding the hand and is characterized by increased visual attention and perception of stimuli within that space. Interestingly, the visual inputs to the neural substrates that enable peri-hand space appear to be more prominent in early development than in adulthood. This suggests that peri-hand space effects should be more prominent in children compared to adults and may play an important role in the development of visually-guided hand movements. To test this, we recruited 17 adults and 12 children between 5 and 8 years of age. Each participant completed a visual search task where they identified a single target object within an array containing eleven additional distractor objects while wearing eye-tracking glasses. Each participant completed the task under two conditions: hand close to the visual array and hand far from the visual array. We expect to find that visual processing of the target object, as measured by accuracy, visual search time, and target recognition time will be enhanced in the hands-close condition to a greater extent in children compared to adults. If the results confirm our predictions, this would suggest that peri-hand space is more prominent in children and could facilitate the transition to visual control of skilled reach and grasp movements
Investigating the Interaction between Bisphenol A and Human Serum Albumin using Affinity Capillary Electrophoresis
No full textBisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical compound used in the production of polycarbonate plastics which are used in containers that store food and beverages. Studies over the years show that BPA is an endocrine disruptor and is believed to have a harmful effect on human health. Human serum albumin (HSA) is the most abundant protein in human blood plasma and is involved in transport of various fatty acids, hormones and other molecules around the body. Due to its function and abundance, it is the ideal protein for the study of the health implications of BPA.
For this project, affinity capillary electrophoresis (ACE) will be used to investigate the type and strength of the interaction between BPA and HSA. A prepared concentration of BPA will be run in different buffers containing varying concentrations of HSA. The first run is done without the HSA to determine the migration time of BPA. A change in the migration time will be observed with the introduction of HSA because of the complex formed as a result of the interaction between both molecules. A binding constant which represents the strength of the interaction will be determined from the changes in migration time at different concentrations of the HSA additive. The type of interaction will be obtained from the thermodynamic parameters (ΔG, ΔS, ΔH) calculated from the data obtained. The result obtained from this study will provide more information on the effect of BPA on human health