UBC News Digest

The UBC News Digest is a weekly summary of news stories about UBC people, research, learning, community, and internationalization initiatives. News Digest past issues are also available on-line.

Feb. 6, 2004

• e-Portfolio initiative enriches UBC learning
• UBC student one of 20 Canadians to join WUSC International Seminar
• Youth Millennium Project challenges Canadian youth
• Construction begins for new engineering building

Receive UBC News Digest via e-mail.

e-Portfolio initiative enriches UBC learning

A group of agricultural sciences students have concluded UBC’s first e-Portfolio pilot project. The project is the first of five such projects that are part of a campus-wide e-Portfolio initiative, launched in August 2003, to help enrich learning at UBC.

Students created e-Portfolios, or collections of their work that can be viewed on the web. Between September and December they kept an online journal where they wrote about their workplace experiences. The goal was to use the self-evaluation feature to help develop interpersonal skills, such as how to better communicate and work effectively in teams. Students used the e-Portfolios to review their behavioural and technical competencies in professional environments, and demonstrate their accomplishments.

Approximately 500 UBC students and faculty from Education, Agricultural Sciences, Science, Pharmacy, and the Centre for Teaching and Academic Growth (TAG) are taking part in the university-wide collaborative project this year.

For more information, visit http://www.estrategy.ubc.ca/news/update0401/040121-e-portfolios.html.

to top

UBC student one of 20 Canadians to join WUSC International Seminar

World University Service of Canada (WUSC) has announced the names of 20 young Canadians who will be participating in the 57th WUSC Summer Seminar, to be held in Malawi this June and July. UBC student Madeleine Lyons will be one of the participants. The students have been chosen from universities across Canada on the basis of academic excellence, extra-curricular leadership and a commitment to international understanding.

During their six-week stay in Malawi, students will be hosted by Malawian families. They will carry out research examining the impact of HIV / AIDS and its devastating consequences. In addition to the research project, they will visit development projects and attend academic conferences. For many of the students, this will be their first experience in a developing country.

They join a distinguished group of prominent Canadians who have participated in previous Summer Seminars, including Pierre Trudeau, Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, OECD Secretary General Donald Johnston, Governor of the Bank of Canada David Dodge, and many others.

For more information, visit www.wusc.ca/resources.

to top

Youth Millennium Project challenges Canadian youth

UBC's Youth Millennium Project (YMP) has completed a 27-city cross-country road trip, reaching more than 69,000 students with their peace challenge.

Through the YMP peace challenge students are being encouraged to create their own projects around education, art, health or the environment. Projects will be evaluated by community leaders. Documentary film-maker Alexandre (Sacha)Trudeau and environmental activist Severn Cullis-Suzuki have signed on as adjudicators.

For more information, visit www.peacechallenge.org.

to top

Construction begins for new engineering building

Groundbreaking ceremonies were held February 3 to celebrate the new Chemical and Biological Engineering building that will also house the Clean Energy Research Centre. The site is located on the south side of the Health Sciences Parkade, between East Mall and Health Sciences Mall.

The 123,000 square foot building will include two contiguous components–a replacement facility for the chemistry and biological engineering department (CHBE), whose faculty are currently dispersed among several locations on campus, and a new facility for the Clean Energy Research Centre (CERC). CERC is an interdisciplinary research group with representatives from the Departments of chemical and biological Engineering, mechanical engineering and metals and materials engineering. The proposed completion for the new building is October 2005.

For more information, contact ErinRose Handy at 604.822.1524 or visit http://www.apsc.ubc.ca/.