Work toward the LFS TA Letter of Completion!

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Happy New Year, LFS TAs! We wanted to remind you about the LFS Advanced TA Skills Letter of Completion, which recognizes TAs who have gone above and beyond to develop teaching skills.

Eligibility:

  • A TA must be a part of the LFS Faculty to receive a letter.
  • TAs must attend 5 independent advanced TA skills training opportunities to receive a letter. These training opportunities can be offered by the LFS TA Training Program, the LFS Learning Centre, The Centre for Teaching Learning and Technology (CTLT) or another recognized TA training entity at UBC. Three of 5 workshops must be completed within LFS programs.
  • The 5 workshops must consist of the following content:
    • 3 workshops related to content in teaching fundamentals.
    • 1 workshop related to content in equity, diversity and inclusivity (EDI) aspects.
    • 1 workshop related to teaching theory/pedagogy.

Good news! The CTLT is hosting a winter TA Institute, which has many workshops that can count toward your Letter of Completion. Here’s some examples below.

Teaching Fundamentals

  • Establishing a Positive TA Experience Working with Faculty Members: Dos and Don’ts
  • Facilitating Discussions
  • Marking, Assessment, and Feedback as a TA

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

  • Active Learning and Inclusion: Using Student Gender, English as an Additional Language, and Neurodivergence Case Studies
  • Social Class in Our Classrooms

Teaching Theory/Pedagogy

  • Designing High Impact Experiential Learning

See all of the sessions here: https://events.ctlt.ubc.ca/event-category/ctlt-institute/

Not sure where a session that you’re interested in fits? Have questions about the Letter of Completion? Email us! (lexisly@mail.ubc.ca & sbristow@student.ubc.ca)

The Social Value of Hurricane Forecasts

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IOF SEMINAR – January 10, 2025
The Social Value of Hurricane Forecasts
What is the impact and value of hurricane forecasts? We study this question using newly-collected forecast data for the universe of land-falling US hurricanes between 2005–2022. We find higher wind speed forecasts increase pre-landfall protective spending. Erroneous under-forecasts of wind speed increase hurricane damage and after-hurricane rebuilding expenditures. Our main contribution is a new theoretically-grounded approach for estimating the marginal value of forecast improvements. We find that the average annual improvement reduced total per-hurricane costs, inclusive of unobserved protective spending, by over $500,000 per county. Improvements since 2007 reduced costs by 19%, averaging $2 billion per hurricane. This exceeds the annual budget for all federal weather forecasting.
Dr. Renato Molina
Assistant Professor
Environmental and Resource Economics
Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science
University of Miami
Friday, January 10, 2025 – 11:00am  – 12:00 pm
Over Zoom
IOF community members (students, faculty and staff) do not need to RSVP for this seminar series.

UBC members, alumni, and all others, RSVP REQUIRED:
https://oceans.ubc.ca/rsvp-iof-seminars/

GradUpdate – Using Visual Thinking to Communicate the Essence of Graduate Students’ Research, Every Semester Needs a Plan, Writing a Literature Review, Network to career success, TA Institute, Summer Sustainability Scholars Program, Foundations of Pedagog

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GradUpdate

In this issue, Using Visual Thinking to Communicate the Essence of Graduate Students’ Research, Every Semester Needs a Plan, Writing a Literature Review, Network to career success, TA Institute, Summer Sustainability Scholars Program, Foundations of Pedagogy, and more.

Registration Open

Using Visual Thinking to Communicate the Essence of Graduate Students’ Research
Online | Tuesday, Jan 21 | 10 am – 12 pm

Register

Events and Opportunities

A selection of upcoming events are highlighted below. 
Visit  community.grad.ubc.ca and grad.ubc.ca/current-students/professional-development for our full events calendar.

ACADEMIC

Every Semester Needs a Plan
Online | Thursday, Jan 9 | 11 am – 12 pm
Join ncfdd.org through UBC’s subscription, then register.

CAREER

Social Insurance Number (SIN) Clinic
Service Canada agents will be on campus to help you obtain your SIN
In-person | Tuesday, Jan 7 | 9:30 am – 3:30 pm Register

Employer on Campus: Government of Canada
In-person | Thursday, Jan 9 | 12 – 1:30 pm Register

Network your way to career success
Online | Tuesday, Jan 14 | 12 – 1 pm Register

Employer on Campus: Connor, Clark & Lunn Investment Management
This global investment manager based in Vancouver offers a wide range of roles and career paths. Team members have academic training in the fields of math, science, engineering, data science, and/or computer science. A background in Finance is not a requirement to join their team.
In-person | Thursday, Jan 16 | 1 – 2 pm Register

Entrepreneurship for Arts Graduate Students
A series of three synchronous online and two in-person workshops that will allow you to learn a variety of skills and techniques to develop a venture idea.
Jan 21 – April 1 | various times | Learn more and register

Sustainability Scholars Program, Summer 2025
Paid, part-time internship, May 1 – Aug 15. Learn more at info sessions:
Online | Wednesday, Jan 15 | 12 – 1:30 pm Register
Online | Thursday, Jan 16 | 5 – 7 pm Register
Resumes, Cover Letters & Best Practices: Refining Your Scholars Application Online | Tuesday, Jan 21 | 5 – 6:30 pm Register

Life Sciences BC’s 6th Annual Career Connect Day 2025
This dynamic full-day event brings together life sciences employers from across the sector, post-secondary students, and job seekers.
In-person, Vancouver Convention Centre | Friday, Jan 24 | 9 am – 4 pm | $25
Learn more and register.

RESEARCH

Introduction to Spatial Data in R
Online | Monday & Tuesday, Jan 13 & 14 | 10 – 11 am Register

Data Bites – Best Practices for File Formatting
Online | Tuesday, Jan 14 | 12:30 – 1 pm Register

TEACHING

How Do I Get Started?”: Exploring in/relation and Storying Instructor Experiences
Online | Thursday, Jan 9 | 1 – 2:30 pm Register
Prior to attending, take a tour of the in/relation website and listen to episode 1 of the Stories in/relation podcast.

Foundations of Pedagogy
Online | Feb 3 – March 31 | Mondays 2 – 4:30 pm
Successful completion involves participation in 7 out of 8 classes including pre-work, teaching one 10 minute mini-lesson and writing a first draft of your teaching portfolio. Upon completion, you will be awarded CIRTL Associate status.
Learn more and apply by Jan 13

CTLT TA Institute
Online and in-person | Jan 13 – 16 | various times | Session details & Registration. Sessions include:

  • Establishing a Positive TA Experience Working with Faculty Members: Dos and Don’ts
  • Facilitating Discussions
  • Marking, Assessment, and Feedback as a TA
  • AI in Teaching and Learning Spaces
  • Active Learning and Inclusion: Using Student Gender, English as an Additional Language, and Neurodivergence Case Studies
  • TA’ing a Community Engaged Learning Course: Exploring Roles, Tension Points and Opportunities for Professional Development
  • Leveraging TAship for Future Career & Self-Advocacy, Negotiation, and Boundaries
  • Developing a Classroom Community
  • Learn About Your Rights as a TA: Intro to TA Union
  • Social Class in Our Classrooms
  • Effective Use of the UBC Early Alert System
  • and Designing High Impact Experiential Learning

WRITING AND COMMUNICATION

Writing a Literature Review: Mapping the Scholarly Conversation
Hybrid | Thursday, Jan 16 | 10 – 11:30 am Register

SSHRC Storytellers Challenge
Submit a 3-min video or audio clip of your SSHRC-funded research and win prizes. 3 UBC graduate students were in 2024’s SSHRC Top 25!
Learn more and submit by Tuesday, Jan 21 at 2 pm.

Refined project communication plan
Online Mitacs training | Wednesday, Jan 15 | 9 am – 12 pm | Mandatory online pre-requisite “Enhance your communication skills”.
Learn more and register for this or upcoming sessions through Mitacs Edge.

Framing your project in a masterful presentation
Online Mitacs training | Thursday, Jan 16 | 7 – 10 am | Mandatory online pre-requisite “Refine your writing and presentation skills”.
Learn more and register for this or upcoming sessions through Mitacs Edge.

IRES Seminar Series – starts on Thurs, January 9

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Hi everyone,
Happy New Year!  The IRES Seminar Series resumes on Thurs, January 9 with 2 IRES Postdocs presenting!
January 9, 2025: IRES Faculty Seminar with Dr. Adrian Lu and Dr. Justine Townsend

Time: 12:30pm to 1:20pm

Location: Beaty Museum Allan Yap Theatre (Basement, 2212 Main Mall). Please check in at front desk on main floor before going downstairs.

No food or drinks allowed in the Beaty Museum.

Available on Zoom

Trade-offs and synergies among ecosystem services along landscape and local complexity gradients in the “Salad Bowl of the World”

(in-person presentation)

Talk summary:

Biodiversity and agricultural ecosystem services generally benefit from landscape and local scale habitat complexity, but trade-offs and synergies among different ecosystem services such as pollination, pest control, crop quality/yield, and soil health are crucial for land managers. Relationships between ecosystem function and habitat complexity can also be complicated by interactions between complexity at different scales. In California’s Salinas Valley region, the source of nearly half of the United States’ strawberries, previous work has shown that pest control by birds and arthropods, as well as abundance and diversity of these service providers, benefit from multi-scalar habitat diversity.  The current project aims to reveal how habitat complexity at different scales may be managed to sustain biodiversity and facilitate a suite of ecosystem services according to stakeholder priorities.

 

     Dr. Adrian LuIRES Postdoc

Bio:

Adrian is a Postdoctoral Fellow working with Claire Kremen to explore the synergies and trade-offs between multiple ecosystem services along multi-scalar habitat complexity gradients in California’s Central Coast strawberry growing region.  At IRES, Adrian seeks to cultivate a deeper understanding of the relationships among traditional resource management, biocultural diversity, and human well-being. Trained as an ecologist and attorney, Adrian’s perennial challenge is to transform scientific findings into advocacy for the interests of marginalized communities.

Legal tensions and opportunities illuminated by Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs) in Canada

(virtual presentation)

Talk summary:

The Province of British Columbia (B.C.), like most jurisdictions in Canada, currently lacks a proactive policy and legal framework that recognizes and supports the establishment of Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs) by Indigenous Nations and communities in Canada. Indigenous Nations have inherent authority to establish IPCAs under Indigenous laws; however, without additional protection afforded by Crown policy and legislation, IPCAs can be vulnerable to resource extraction and development. Indigenous Nations who are establishing and governing IPCAs in B.C. have faced multiple legal challenges. To overcome some of the limitations of existing protected area legislation, some Indigenous Nations in B.C. and Canada have pursued a multiple designation approach that uses Indigenous legal orders to establish IPCAs and Crown legislation to establish Crown protected areas. Together, these designations can be mobilized to advance legally pluralistic approaches and strong co-governance models.

    Dr. Justine TownsendIRES Postdoc

Bio:

Dr. Justine Townsend is a Postdoctoral Fellow investigating knowledge mobilization practices in the conservation sector through a decolonial lens. This builds on her doctoral research on the possibilities for reconciliation through Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs) involving community-engaged research with three First Nations in B.C. She holds a joint position, IPCA Planning and Research Lead, with the IISAAK OLAM Foundation, an Indigenous educational organization, and Vancouver Island University (VIU). She teaches in VIU’s Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas Planning Certificate. A political ecologist by training, Justine has a background in environmental assessments and community engagement.

See you on January 9 in the Beaty Museum Allan Yap Theatre! 

_______________________________________________________________________________

Bonnie Leung

RES Program Support (she/her/hers)

Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES)

University of British Columbia | Vancouver Campus | Musqueam Traditional Territory

Aquatic Ecosystems Research Laboratory (AERL Building)

Room 429 – 2202 Main Mall | Vancouver, BC | V6T 1Z4 | Canada

 

Email: bonnie.leung@ubc.ca

Tel: 604-822-9249

Competition Announcement: Indigenous Graduate Fellowships

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Internal Deadline: January 24, 2025

Please let me know about your intention to apply by Jan 15h, 2024 

Indigenous Graduate Fellowship (IGF)

The Indigenous Graduate Fellowship (IGF) offers multi-year fellowships to Indigenous Master’s and Doctoral students in all disciplines. Award winners are selected on the basis of academic merit through an annual competition, administered by the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. Opportunities are also available for (i) Indigenous PhD students in their fourth year to apply for a fifth year of funding and (ii) for research Master’s and PhD students to apply for research funding, which are also outlined below.

Please note that a distinct application deadline has been set for candidates, February 14, 2025 at 4:00PM PT, and the graduate program nomination deadline to follow two weeks later.

Indigenous Graduate Fellowships competition

Each fellowship provides a stipend of $25,000 per year for Doctoral students or a stipend of $17,500 per year for Master’s students. Additionally, IGF recipients are eligible to receive tuition funding. Tuition funding will not exceed the current value of the standard Doctoral or Master’s degree tuition fees. In all cases, continued fellowship support is conditional on satisfactory academic progress. Recipients of Master’s fellowship funding must re-apply to be considered for Doctoral funding.

All Indigenous students are eligible to apply, but priority is given to Indigenous students whose traditional territory falls, at least in part, within Canada. This includes Canadian First Nations, Métis or Inuit students and may include Indigenous students from Alaska and other states of the USA. The University may request further information to confirm Indigenous eligibility. Since January 2023, the IGF is also open to students in professional and coursework-only Master’s programs.

Note: On the IGF Nomination Form, graduate programs will be asked if they intend to recommend their doctoral nominees for funding from the 4YF program. If so, and the nominee is subsequently ranked high enough to be offered IGF funding, the applicant will receive a “4YF-I” (same value as 4YF, $18,200) plus a $6,800 per year IGF stipend top-up for the duration of the 4YF-I, to a total value of $25,000 per annum. In such cases, the 4YF-G returns to graduate program and may be offered to a different student as the 4YF-I is centrally funded by G+PS. (Note: if the nominee is not ranked high enough to be offered IGF funding, the graduate program will be responsible for providing 4YF funding from their existing 4YF allocation.)

IGF 5th Year Award

Indigenous PhD students in their 4th year are able to apply for 5th year funding through the IGF 5th Year Award. The award, valued at $25,000 per annum plus tuition, is awarded on the recommendation of the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies to full-time Indigenous doctoral students from all disciplines to fund their 5th year of study, where research involves community-engaged methodologies and approaches.

IGF Research & Engagement Award

Funding in support of research and travel expenses for Indigenous graduate students has been made available through the IGF Research & Engagement Award to current holders of the Indigenous Graduate Fellowship. Recipients of the award will be engaged in work that contributes directly or indirectly to community engagement and relationship building with Indigenous communities. Successful candidates will receive a minimum of $3,000 for Master’s students and a minimum of $5,000 for Doctoral students.  Additional funding may be offered depending on budget availability.

  • Application deadline for both awards: February 14 2025, at 4:00PM PT

For information on eligibility and application procedures, including application forms, please consult the G+PS webpages linked above. For questions, please contact Bree Wilson at bree.wilson@ubc.ca.