Experiential Learning

New nursing simulation project promotes gender-affirming care for 2SLGTBQIA+ community

siddiq22 — Thu, 29 Jun 2023 17:06:07 +0000

New nursing simulation project promotes gender-affirming care for 2SLGTBQIA+ community

siddiq22 Thu, 06/29/2023 - 13:06

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Nursing student Richard Tang (centre) with Laura Fairley (left) and Erica Cambly, assistant professors in the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing (photo by Neal MacInnes)

Rebecca Biason

Topic

Our Community

Experiential Learning

health care education

Simulation

Health

Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing

LGBTQ

Richard Tang, a student in the Master of Nursing program at the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, has led the co-creation of a new simulation – a type of experiential learning – for undergraduate nursing students that is focused on providing specialized care to the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.

Tang, who recently won the poster competition at the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing (CASN) Conference for the project, was motivated to create the new simulation to bring queer health to the forefront of the nursing curriculum.

“Gender dysphoria is an ingrained conceptualization in the care that is sometimes provided to the transgender community, and we wanted to shift that perspective among our nursing students,” Tang says.

Learning in a simulation environment, adds Tang, provides students and educators a chance to understand best practices for trans care and identify pre-existing assumptions and biases without harming or traumatizing a patient.

The new simulation module takes place in the community health unit of the Bloomberg Nursing Simulation Lab, which can be transformed into a home care setting.

Faculty collaborators, including Laura Fairley and Erica Cambly – both assistant professors – helped to create the simulation environment that features a client who is a trans man recovering from top/chest surgery at home.

Using a state-of-the art mannequin complete with drainage tubes and the ability to speak (voiced by Fairley), students learn how to look after the client through what Tang describes as a joyous approach to care.

The project used a mannequin to simulate post-operative recovery from chest surgery (photo by Richard Tang)

Students must also address some of the complex challenges that arise for their client, which include management of post-operative complications, lack of access to a primary care provider, as well as the need to address additional social determinants of health.

“In all of our current work in the simulation lab, we lay a solid theoretical groundwork for students to learn how to provide trans-competent care,” says Fairley, who is a nurse with extensive experience caring for people recovering from transition-related surgeries.

“What is unique about this new simulation is that it goes beyond the theoretical and allows for students to visibly challenge cisnormativity and recognize that trans health care is ubiquitous in all types of nursing.”

Fairley further points out that members of the trans community experience significant discrimination when attempting to access transition-related medical care, but with Toronto considered a national hub for transition services, this is a specific type of knowledge that nurses will need to know – whether in primary care, the ER, acute care, or home-care settings across the province.

Creating this type of simulation requires intense collaboration – from the development of the storyline and preparatory materials, to the input of community members that it impacts.

In addition to Cambly and Fairley’s expertise in simulation learning and trans health care, a member of the trans community was also invited to review the simulation for accuracy alongside community-health nurses with expertise in transition-related care.

Cambly, who leads the simulation curriculum in the faculty, says that the clear standards and best practices for developing a simulation – which include looking for hidden biases and ensuring that there are clear learning objectives – are what help make a new simulation rollout successful.

She says this particular simulation was piloted with first- and second-year students in the undergraduate nursing program, with students being given an opportunity to debrief and provide feedback about how the simulation flowed, and what could be done better.

“I think one of the things we noticed during the pilot was that the students were really pleased we were doing this work and making this simulation available to all students,” Cambly says.

“Some of our students are living with transphobia, or have seen examples of it in their everyday life, and they see how important this knowledge is for health-care providers.”

The new simulation will likely be ready to be added to the 2023-2024 nursing curriculum – an important step in ensuring students are well-equipped to provide equitable and inclusive health care.

For Tang, the opportunity to blend his passion for teaching and learning with a chance to make a positive impact for students and the queer community is rewarding.

“I’m reassured that we are headed in the right direction in achieving these community-practice goals,” Tang says.

“We are not only making positive changes to the curriculum, but also addressing the diverse needs of the populations we serve.”

U of T prof to offer experimental course taught with AI tools like ChatGPT

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 10 Apr 2023 18:36:36 +0000

U of T prof to offer experimental course taught with AI tools like ChatGPT

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 04/10/2023 - 14:36

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Paolo Granata, associate professor and program coordinator in the Book & Media Studies program at St. Michael's College, has developed a new course that explores the ethics and impact of AI tools (supplied image)

Faculty of Arts & Science Staff

Topic

Our Community

Experiential Learning

Academics

Artificial Intelligence

Faculty of Arts & Science

St. Michael's College

Technology

A new experimental University of Toronto course will be taught with artificial intelligence (AI) tools.

The advanced fourth-year seminar, AI as a Classroom, will be offered in fall 2023 by the Faculty of Arts & Science as part of the book and media studies program at St. Michael’s College.

The seminar will address a variety of issues concerning artificial intelligence and its growing influence on society, including the ethics of AI and its impact on culture and media.

The course is the brainchild of Paolo Granata, an associate professor and program coordinator in the book and media studies program who has a history of engaging in experimental pedagogy.

During the pandemic, Granata – who is also the founder of the Media Ethics Lab and leads the Toronto School Initiative and the 3D Gutenberg Lab – used virtual reality technologies to foster experiential learning. He sees the new AI course as a way of expanding these explorations of new media and the learning space.

“This is an exciting opportunity for students to explore the cutting edge of AI and its potential for education,” Granata said.

The seminar will also engage with provocative questions about the role of the professor in the creation and curation of the learning experience – and in the potential of AI to enhance learning and promote proactive thought.

Using the most advanced technologies in the field, including generative AI and large language models – an AI system that uses a vast amount of training data to process and generate human-like language – the course will feature a customized version of ChatGPT that has been expressly trained on course research questions.

Throughout the course, students will develop skills in the use of artificial intelligence in order to develop cutting-edge critical analyses of AI from a variety of ethical, practical and philosophical perspectives.

Based on the late philosopher and U of T professor Marshall McLuhan’s adage “the medium is the message,” the course will provide an innovative context through which to investigate the potential for AI to enhance human agency in previously unimaginable ways, Granata said.

“By experimenting with AI tools in the classroom, we hope to provide our students with a unique and enriching learning experience that will prepare them for the challenges of the 21st century, where AI literacy is key.”

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Bringing the Middle Ages to life: U of T students draw on pandemic experience to create teaching resource

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 31 May 2022 16:29:55 +0000

Bringing the Middle Ages to life: U of T students draw on pandemic experience to create teaching resource

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 05/31/2022 - 12:29

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Clockwise from top left: Amrita Brar, Hannah Guiang, Mailey Horner, Rion Levy, Sai Vipin Nikam, Josefina Novoa Reátegui, Anita Jyothi Sritharan and Theodosiya Zyla won an award for connecting the tales of 14th century Italian book to modern-day issues.

Christine Elstub

Topic

Our Community

Experiential Learning

Faculty of Arts & Science

Living through the COVID-19 pandemic helped inform the work of eight University of Toronto students in the Faculty of Arts & Science – and now their work could help inform students across the province.

The students – Amrita Brar, Hannah Guiang, Mailey Horner, Rion Levy, Sai Vipin Nikam, Josefina Novoa Reátegui, Anita Jyothi Sritharan and Theodosiya Zyla – contributed to “Giovanni Boccaccio’s One Hundred Tales,” a web-based resource bank hosted on ArcGIS StoryMaps.

Teresa Russo

Set up like a virtual museum, the resource combines text, images, maps and other digital elements to explore the tales of 14th century Italian book The Decameron – and connect it to modern-day issues of class, gender, race and, of course, the pandemic It is designed to help educators teach the Middle Ages and is accessible to teachers at all Ontario school boards.

Sritharan, an Innis College student specializing in cognitive science, says the project will prepare her for a career in education.

“This was my first time creating a resource for teachers to use following provincial curriculum guidelines,” she says. “It’s a skill I’ll be using in the future.”

“Giovanni Boccaccio’s One Hundred Tales“ was developed as a class project for “Signs, Meanings and Culture,” a second-year material culture and semiotics course at Victoria College. It was created in partnership with Gianluca Agostinelli of the Niagara Catholic District School Board, whose feedback helped ensure the content meets Ontario curriculum guidelines while addressing the needs of diverse learners.

Instructor Teresa Russo was inspired to launch the project after hearing from high school teachers about their challenges in finding a Medieval text that students could relate to. She knew The Decameron – a collection of short stories narrated by a fictional group of friends who escape to the countryside during the Black Death (1346 to 1352) – would be relatable to students who had experienced the COVID-19 pandemic.

“If students who are now in elementary school study The Decameron when they get to high school, they’ll remember back when they had to wear masks and learn online,” Russo says.

The eight students won an Experiential & Work-Integrated Learning Ontario Student of the Year Award, which recognizes students who have shown a strong contribution to work-integrated learning, an experiential learning approach that combines academic studies with experience in the workplace or another practical setting.

Levy, a literature and critical theory specialist and a member of Victoria College, explored how nonchalant attitudes about travel during both the Black Death and COVID-19 pandemics contributed to the spread of disease.

“We always knew that if you travel, you’re going to spread what you have or be more likely to catch something,” Levy says. “In my lifetime, we had never really spoken about that until now, so I made the connection that this has happened throughout history yet we’re still repeating the same mistakes.”

Reátegui, a Trinity College student majoring in anthropology and psychology, drew parallels between the book’s central narrative and her own interactions with friends during the pandemic.

“I included a picture of me and my girlfriends having a picnic in the middle of 2020,” she says. “It was the first time I’d seen them in ages and we were telling each other stories. Hundreds of years before that, a group of friends were doing the same thing. Even the way the narrator talked – it’s just how I talk to my girlfriends. It made me realize that the people in the Middle Ages were actually human.”

The plague of Florence in 1348, as described in Boccaccio’s Decameron. Etching by L. Sabatelli after himself. See page for author, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Beyond adding an award to their resumes, the students gained workplace skills, including teamwork, communication and the ability to make complex academic concepts relatable to a general audience. “Many of these students want to become museum curators or go to graduate school,” says Russo. “To have experience working with a digital humanities project is amazing for their resumes.”

Russo’s students completed 38 of The Decameron’s 100 tales this year. She plans to repeat the project to have the remaining 62 stories completed by 2023. Through a partnership with the American Boccaccio Association, she will also engage scholars from around the world for additional contributions.

Knowing the resource they created will be used by educators for years to come is especially rewarding, says Levy.

“I haven’t seen a class activity before where we actually get to create something real. It’s exciting that the end product is going to be of value to people.”

U of T Engineering student team wins first place at regional Chem-E-Car competition

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 11 May 2022 19:40:38 +0000

U of T Engineering student team wins first place at regional Chem-E-Car competition

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 05/11/2022 - 15:40

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Members of the University of Toronto Chemical Vehicles student team show off their Chem-E car (photo courtesy of UTCV)

Delicia Ansalem

Topic

Our Community

Experiential Learning

Alumni

Chemical Engineering

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Global

The University of Toronto Chemical Vehicles (UTCV) student group recently won first place at the 2022 American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Northeast Regional Chem-E-Car Competition.

The team from U of T’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering beat the reigning champion teams from Clarkson University and Cornell University in the April 30 race, which draws multidisciplinary design teams from across North America to exhibit cars powered by chemical energy sources.

They will now advance to the National Championship in November.

“The competition distance was 20 metres and our car ran 20.04 metres with our team’s record-breaking error of only four centimetres,” says Jinmyung Jang, a U of T Engineering alumnus and co-president of UTCV. “This is an extremely competitive result, given the average error for the winning teams at the national competition since 2015 was around five centimetres.”

The UTCV team will take their Chem-E car design to Phoenix in November (photo courtesy of UTCV)

The UTCV team first competed in the regional competition in 2018 and placed ninth out of 21 teams. The next year, they reached sixth place out of 12 teams.

After a two-year absence due to COVID-19 restrictions, the U of T team returned to competition with key innovations to their design, including: a safe, reproducible 21-volt aluminum-air battery with enhanced corrosion control; methylene blue chemical timer with a developed sensor algorithm to improve precision; a portable magnetic stirrer installed on the car; and improved quality of construction and electronic connections.

Jang says the win is an extraordinary accomplishment for the UTCV team and would not have been possible without the resources and support from the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry.

“We managed to attend the competition after only three months of lab access as compared to five months in a typical season,” he says.

“Being a part of this design challenge allows our students to develop their problem-solving and leadership skills, while gaining technical exposure to wet chemistry laboratories, battery building and integrating design components,” says Professor Ramin Farnood, chair of the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry. “This is an excellent example of experiential learning opportunities that we would like to see our students engaged in.”

The 2022 AIChE Annual Chem-E-Car Competition, National Championship, will take place from November 11-14 in Phoenix, Ariz.

As part of new course, U of T Engineering students work with global stakeholders to address key challenges

Christopher.Sorensen — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 14:28:58 +0000

As part of new course, U of T Engineering students work with global stakeholders to address key challenges

Christopher.Sorensen Wed, 01/05/2022 - 09:28

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Students work on a cold air bubble piping system as part of an experiential learning course at U of T Engineering that aims to tackle global problems and involves organizations from around the world (photo by Safa Jinje)

Safa Jinje

Topic

Our Community

Experiential Learning

Academics

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Global

More than 200 third-year students in the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering recently presented collaborative solutions to a range of global challenges – from recycling plastics to clearing invasive plants from canal waterways – as part of a two-day showcase that was recorded for organizations around the world.

The showcase was held in classrooms across the faculty and recorded for partners based in Nigeria, Ghana, Thailand, Uganda and South Africa.

“Engineering is about people – it’s about the human condition,” says Philip Asare, an assistant professor in the division of engineering science and Institute for Studies in Transdisciplinary Engineering Education and Practice (ISTEP) who co-leads the course with Sasha Gollish, an assistant professor, teaching stream.

“We want students to be able to see how technical work is influenced by all the human dimensions: the setting, the context, the people you are working with and the capacity you have.”

Held for the first time this year, the redesigned Praxis III course builds on the success of Praxis I and II – two first-year classes that introduce students to the models and tools of engineering design, including communication, teamwork and professionalism. Praxis III expands these learning opportunities to students in their second year while introducing a global element.

This year’s cohort collaborated with business students at Georgia State University as they designed and tested their functioning product prototypes, which propose solutions to the challenges faced by communities around the world.

In one of the Ghana projects, Makafui Awuku, who is the founder and CEO of Mckingtorch Africa, invited students to look for novel ways to re-use plastic and sawdust in the creation of new building materials. Mckingtorch Africa recycles and upcycles plastic waste to create new products such as plastic mats, foodware and makeshift beds. The social enterprise is exploring the production of wood-like panels for construction made from recovered sawdust and plastic.

“Each of the five teams decided to focus on a different part of the value chain, from acquiring sawdust to mixing it with plastic, to measuring properties of the produced composite wood/plastic panels,” says Asare. “The collection of projects when viewed together provide a great overall value for Mckingtorch Africa.”

Students researched the local community, culture and practices to create designs that would provide benefit to the client while ensuring cultural sensitivity.

“Empathy is introduced as a core concept in Praxis III,” says Victoria German, a third-year engineering science student. “We had to do a lot of non-functional research to better understand the community we are serving.”

Instructors led students through reflection assignments, lectures, classroom discussions and hands-on building exercises that reinforced the importance of empathy in their designs.

Students pose with their thermal testing system, called Jim (Just Insert Material), as part of the “The Potential of Recycled Plastics” project with Mckingtorch Africa (photo by Safa Jinje)

During their presentations, student teams also made an argument for why their designs would be relevant to the community that they were working with, through both the lens of United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, and what they understood about the people and their needs.

“We spent a lot of time on the conception of the design. It was really important for us to make sure we were meticulous at every stage,” says third-year engineering science student Rasam Yazdi. “We definitely gained good experiences out of this from working with computer-aided design models to electrical work and the actual build.”

Praxis III is intended for second-year students, but this first iteration was introduced to third-year students due to pandemic-related delays. The next iteration begins in the winter term and will have close to 300 second-year students.

“This course requires us to innovate in a number of ways, especially with supporting the hands-on technical work through our partnership with the Myhal Fabrication Facility,” says Asare.

“We’ve produced important systems and processes that support the course work from a parts and components perspective. We have also introduced a procurement process and tools and widgets to help students work well in their labs.”

Asare says the experience has been a positive one for his global peers.

“The global partners are interested in these kinds of interactions with students; they have made it clear that they see value in it,” he says. “Next term, we are introducing humanitarian settings with projects in Yemen.”

“As the course evolves, we want to experiment with structures that make it possible for students to continue to pursue their designs beyond the course. There are lots of interesting things to come.”

‘There's so much you can do with it’: Academic internship course connects art history to careers

Christopher.Sorensen — Mon, 06 Dec 2021 15:56:56 +0000

‘There's so much you can do with it’: Academic internship course connects art history to careers

Christopher.Sorensen Mon, 12/06/2021 - 10:56

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401 Richmond, a Toronto-based arts hub, is one of several local arts organizations where U of T students taking a fourth-year art history course can participate in a semester- or session-long internship (photo by Vik Pahwa/401 Richmond)

Sean McNeely

Topic

City & Culture

Experiential Learning

Academics

Art History

Cities

Faculty of Arts & Science

Trinity College

Through internships with 401 Richmond, the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario (ACO) or the Toronto Society of Architects, art history students at the University of Toronto are learning about the career opportunities that await them after graduation.

“When you think of art history, it's kind of an ivory tower that’s not seen as a really applicable subject to study for careers,” says Jessica Mace, a post-doctoral researcher who is working with the department of art history in the Faculty of Arts & Science and the Office of Experiential Learning & Outreach Support (ELOS) to redesign a fourth-year academic internship course.

“But it is. There's so much you can do with it.”

Mace is supporting the department’s Canada Constructed: Architecture, Landscape, History initiative. Funded through the provost’s Learning & Education Advancement Fund (LEAF) Impact Grant, the project aims to increase interest in the study of Canadian architecture at U of T and beyond through new undergraduate courses, internships, events and content on social media platforms, as well as a new website.

The internship course she is redesigning gives students the opportunity to work with local arts organizations for a semester or academic session.

Jessica Mace, a post-doctoral researcher, says art industry-related internships develop valuable professional skills.

“Prior to this initiative, students would seek their own opportunities,” says Mace. “They would approach an art gallery, try to get the host and the department on board, sort out the paperwork on their own, and still not be guaranteed a meaningful work or learning experience.

“My task was to find these opportunities and approach the partners. I walked them through expectations and responsibilities and got all the paperwork sorted in advance, so that we could just advertise the positions and students could apply.”

As a result, students have enjoyed internships at arts-based partner organizations such as 401 Richmond, the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario (ACO), the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada, TO Built and the Toronto Society of Architects.

Mace has helped facilitate 12 internships since the spring – and the student responses have been overwhelmingly positive.

Olwen Alaminos, a member of Trinity College and a fourth-year student who is completing a double major in ethics, society and the law, as well as art history, chose the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada (SSAC) for her internship. There, she helped prepare for and execute the society’s annual conference.

“I was intrigued by the rare opportunity to see the practical side of work in the world of art and architecture,” says Alaminos.

She attended regular meetings to discuss conference planning, created promotional materials for key conference events and communicated directly with conference presenters.

“It was fascinating to learn about up-and-coming architectural research in areas such as ecologically sustainable religious architecture, the significance of graffiti in the creation of urban cityscapes and Indigenous approaches to design,” she says.

“I truly enjoyed my time working with the SSAC and the valuable connections I gained. Every society member I met was welcoming and encouraging, and I received the added bonus of membership in the society for a year.”

Mace says ensuring that students played a meaningful role with the partners was part of the program’s mandate.

“The students shouldn't just be doing grunt work,” she says. “They should actually be contributing to the organization and getting something back from them as well.”

Mace also added an experiential learning component when she helped redesign the fourth-year Studies in Canadian Architecture course, which she taught under the theme of “Hidden Canada.”

“The course had been offered before, but I was given free rein on it,” she says. “Again, I worked with the ELOS office on how to make this an experiential learning opportunity.”

That opportunity involved students working with the Architectural Conservancy of Ontario’s NextGen program to produce a series of articles on innovative architectural topics for the ACO’s new blog.

“I broke it down into a number of different steps,” says Mace. “Students were introduced to some ACO reps at the start who helped frame the project and give them ideas on topics that would be of interest and later offered one-on-one research support. They also met with the editor of Canadian Architect to talk about how to write a public piece.”

The result was a series of well-received articles that covered topics such as protecting Indigenous spaces, celebrating a spiritual centre of the Taoist community and incorporating green spaces when designing Canadian suburbs.

Mace says she is thrilled with the students’ contributions for both articles and internships.

“It's been great,” she says. “I really like having students do something that's not just a paper that sits on my desktop. They're developing writing skills, research skills and communication skills that can be applied in so many different areas.

“It's a bonus that we can get students interested in the built environment and heritage around them, because this is the place where they live and work. So, why not take an interest in those topics and learn more about them?”

For her work in this course and for creating beneficial learning opportunities for students, Mace was nominated for the ACO’s NextGen Award that recognizes an individual early in their career for outstanding contributions to the field of heritage.

Mace says she is humbled by the nomination, but that the real reward has been “seeing the students discover Canadian architecture and heritage in a new way, or thinking about art history in a new way, or just making those kinds of connections with the arts community.”

“Even the students who just signed up for an elective, I see them getting really into their research projects and thinking them through, and asking me for more opportunities – even after a course ends.

“That’s so rewarding.”