Monday, October 31, 2011

Labs Module 9

Image from Webster University.


This week labs will be devoted to practising and perfecting your APA referencing style. This way you'll be ready not only for our own science assignment...but any other essay or article or poster you create for any of your other courses!

Here is the worksheet that I'd like you to work on during the lab: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1H5Oj4TMvVlv8NjzX9AugNrXh1ifoqmslS1j6UsAQO4k/edit

And, when you've completed the worksheet, try your hand at this quiz! You can work with a partner: http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/quizshowall.php?title=apa-citation-practice-quiz

Social Media & Student Use

I just want to say how proud I am of all of you and how well you're harnessing social media to further your learning and collaboration.

I thought I would highlight student work when it is brought to my attention. Here is a great example of an ALES204 students (Julianna Damer) using YouTube to broadcast her thoughts and connect with other classmates. Feel free to comment here to start a discussion with Julianna and/or to let me know what you've been up to. Perhaps you've made a video or a google doc that you'd like me to share with the class?


Lecture 20: Flickr, Image Citation and Copyright

In today's lecture we shall look explicitly at image citation (especially now that we all use flickr) and what creative commons means in terms of copyright.


Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Poster Competition!


The Students’ Union Undergraduate Research Symposium is taking place on November 17-18, with the poster competition taking place in the Centennial Centre for Interdisciplinary Sciences from the morning to early afternoon on November 18.

Originally, the deadline for students’ abstract submissions was on October 28; however, the deadline has been extended to Wednesday November 2 at 5pm. Although the deadline has been extended, please endeavour to submit abstracts as soon as possible (submitting them by October 28 is ideal).

The submission form can be found at  http://www.su.ualberta.ca/governance/executives/projects/urs/. Questions may be directed to the SU Vice-President Academic e-mail at vp.academic@su.ualberta.ca.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Employability & Social Media Use

Students should find this infographic very informative!

Infographic by Reppler via Mashable.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Lecture 19: Reviewing Science Articles

Today Pam will guest lecture and lead us on how to review a science article.

She will have a powerpoint which will be posted here.


Thursday, October 20, 2011

E-Portfolio Rubric

Seeing as next week is e-portfolio week, here is the rubric that we will use to mark your work. This should guide you when you craft and design your posts.

As always, e-mail me should you have any questions!

Remember to comment on someone else's blog.

See the rubric about the final reflective blog post - remember to add all your four (or more) comments in your blog post and have them linked.


Remember too, if you want to review what is required of the e-portoflio, see here for the google doc which I recommend that you PRINT out for your easy reference:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/17P4d3DQvb7MRGSfNkTiwOEHlNXzZpPwXL2HkcXjbmVE/edit?hl=en_US


Remember, no labs this week.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Lecture 18: Science Article Writing

Today we have a guest lecture from Kaustav! Please remember to send three tweets to @JessL about what you're learning from Kaustav's lecture. Please also tweet back to a fellow student - start a discussion about what you're learning. Remember, next week is e-portfolio week! It's your chance to work on your own topic of a blog post and perhaps start drafting your reflective blog post. You can add your twitter feed and in general spruce up your e-portfolios!

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Science Article Assignment

This week in labs you will be given the Science Article Assignment and you will have the duration of the lab to discussion the options with the TA. By the end of the lab, you will let your TA know which option you will be doing.

You can always check the google doc of the assignment too.

Note: Sometimes the google doc seems to have some issues with Option 1. So here is a google doc JUST of Option 1:.

Remember there are four options, you just need to pick one.

Some Requirements:

Due: Friday, November 18th, 17:00;
Length: 750-1250 words;
Format: Memorandum (single-spaced text; double-spaced between headings and paragraphs);
Publication: Via E-mail to Dr. Laccetti (laccettiATualberta.ca) AND to your TA;


Infographic: World Food Crisis

I thought this infographic would be of interest to #ALES2-4 students, perhaps especially those concerned with the environment and health/nutrition: The Food Crisis
Created by: Public Health Degree

E-Portfolio & Delicious Tag Clouds

Hi everyone!

Part of your e-portfolio requirements call for you to embed a tag cloud of your delicious sites.

However, delicious has been sold to another company that does not want to support the tag clouds! This means you cannot easily go on to delicious and find the information required to embed your tag cloud.

 You can read about the problems with tag clouds and why the new company is not supporting them: http://support.delicious.com/delicious/topics/where_did_the_tag_cloud_go?from_gsfn=true



So, the e-portfolio will *NOT* require you to include a delicious feed.

Should you want to try a work around.

Follow these steps:

 Log in to your blogger account
Go to your blog's dashboard
Choose to go to Layout
"add a gadget" to your sidebar
Choose the "html/javascript option
Paste the following information into the white box:
 [LEFT HTML BRACKET]script type="text/javascript" src="http: //feeds.delicious.com/v2.1/js/tags/USERNAME?title=TITLETEXT&icon&count=NUMERAL&sort=freq&flow=cloud&color=73adff-3274d0&size=12-20"[RIGHT HTML BRACKET][LEFT HTML BRACKET]/script[RIGHT HTML BRACKET]


 Make sure you CHANGE the USERNAME to your delicious name.



OR try pasting in this information:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://feeds.delicious.com/v2.1/js/tags/ALES204?title=My%20Delicious%20Tags&icon&count=100&sort=alpha&flow=cloud&name&showadd&color=73adff-3274d0&size=12-35"></script>

BUT change ALES204 to YOUR delicious username.




Click Save This *should* work but because it is not supported by delicious, it is not guaranteed to work.

Try this but don't worry if you are not successful!

Monday, October 17, 2011

Lecture 17: Science Journal Articles

In today's lecture we will review the elements of a scientific paper:


Abstract
Introduction
Methods
Results
Discussion
Works Cited/References



The second example of an abstract comes from this article: 



Green Tea Consumption Is Inversely Associated with the Incidence of Influenza Infection among Schoolchildren in a Tea Plantation Area of Japan


you can read the abstract here or the entire paper here.



Also very useful is this article: Writing the Empirical Journal Article by
Daryl J. Bem
He gives some very useful examples of opening statements and how to present your findings.





Image from OWL at Purdue.


For further reading, check this out: HOW TO WRITE A SCIENTIFIC PAPER FOR A PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL by PHIL LANG

Sunday, October 16, 2011

#ALES204 Blog Stats

I thought you all would be interested to know that in this young blog's life (only 2 months old!), we have already had over 14 THOUSAND people coming to view your work! Congratulations!


Here is some information on the most popular blog posts, where people are coming from and how they find us.

Also of interest, are the words people use to search for us. The most common are:

ales 204
university of alberta blog
jessica laccetti class blog
science blog agriculture






CSL Lab

Hello All from the CSl lab!

Wanted to give everyone access to the individual student blog links and their facebook profile pages (because I compiled the two). Please check out my students' blog spots for updates on their placements and cool things they're doing.

Its been a blast with them so far - they are very bright minds and motivated young stars and I am enjoying my time learning about their placements and mentoring them with their projects.

Have a great day all!
Courtney

ALES 204 CSL Student Blog and Facebook Links

Cassandra McKenzie

Blog: http://cassandra-mckenzie.blogspot.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002969678463&sk=wall

Kalin Herbach

Blog: http://nutrjunkie.blogspot.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002972767676&sk=wall

Tania Boyko

Blog: http://taniasales204blog.blogspot.com/

Facebook: NA (completed a paper copy)

Jiayue Chen

Blog: http://lunaislunatic.blogspot.com/

Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003042890997#!/profile.php?id=100002971327531

Arisha Seeras

Blog: http://areekatz.blogspot.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100002957257717

Xiaoming Jia

Blog: http://xiaomingales204.blogspot.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Health-Promotion/264024523629722

Angele L’Heureux

Blog: http://alheureu.blogspot.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Angele-LHeureux/216000341794778?sk=info

Duo (Randy) Zhi

Blog: http://littlewarrior525.blogspot.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002980090224&sk=info

Wagma Rashid

Blog: http://wagma8.blogspot.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100002986062410&viewas=100002986062410&returnto=profile


Jamie Desautels

Blog: http://ales-jamie.blogspot.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002974417479


Friday, October 14, 2011

Undergraduate Research Symposium

A GREAT way to get involved in the research scene:




Abstracts are being accepted for the Students' Union's upcoming Undergraduate Research Symposium, which is being held in conjunction with the newly-launched Undergraduate Research Initiative, and with partners such as the Alumni Association. The symposium, which takes place November 17 and 18, is set to become one of Canada's largest and preeminent undergraduate research symposiums, with over 100 undergraduate research presentations in a November 18 poster competition, and over $10,000 in award funding for outstanding undergraduate research projects.

In order to increase the awareness of this event, I would be grateful if you could forward this e-mail to undergraduate students that currently or recently participated in undergraduate research. The symposium is open to current undergraduate students in all disciplines at the University of Alberta. A link to the Students' Union undergraduate research page can be found by going to su.ualberta.ca and http://www.su.ualberta.ca/governance/executives/projects/urs/.

Abstract submissions are due by October 28 at the end of the day. Students must submit a 250-word maximum abstract and explain their research in basic terms. Moreover, University of Alberta Libraries has provided guidelines for students preparing abstracts and posters through an online resource athttp://guides.library.ualberta.ca/undergraduateresearch. There is no cost for undergraduate students entering the symposium.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at vp.academic@su.ualberta.ca or at 780.492.4236. I look forward to seeing your ALES undergraduate students at the inaugural Students' Union and University of Alberta Undergraduate Research Symposium. 

Conference Opportunity for ALES204 Undergrads


Nominations are now open for participation in the third annual 2012 AP/IB conference scheduled for Saturday March 10, 2012 in CCIS.  This is a fantastic opportunity for U of A faculty members to share their research with a super engaged group of high achieving Grade 11 & 12 students from across Alberta.  ALES has had panel representation in each of the past two years and I encourage faculty members from all program areas and departments to consider sharing their expertise at the 2012 conference.   The theme for 2012 remains unchanged from last year and is Exploring Global Change

Action Item: If you would like to be considered as a panel presenter at this event, please respond to me by Friday, October 28 with your name, along with 2-3 sentences describing the topic on which you are willing to present as it relates to the Exploring Global Change theme.  I will forward all names received by October 28 to the planning committee who is responsible for final speaker selection.

Background information on the event is provided below, as well as in the attached 2011 conference program. 


For information on past conferences you can refer to the conference site:

Other information you may need:
What is the event called: 2012 AP/IB Conference: Exploring Global Change

Date of the event: Saturday, March 10, 2012

Where is it being held: CCIS (new and exciting location this year!)

Tentative schedule of the day (NOTE: this is subject to change):
9:00 – 9:30 – Greetings
9:30 – 10:30 – Session 1
10:30 – 11:30 – Session 2
11:30 – 11:45 – Break
11:45 – 12:45 – Morning discussion seminar
12:45 – 1:30 – Lunch
1:30 – 2:30 – Session 3
2:30 – 3:30 – Session 4
3:30 – 3:45 – Break
3:45 – 4:45 – Afternoon discussion seminar
4:45 – 5:15 – Prize draw, essay contest information


Thursday, October 13, 2011

Lecture 16: CV Writing Workshop

Today the TAs and I are going to show you our own CVs. I have had great luck with mine, landing an interview each time I've used it - so I'm an aficionado of this style. But, there are lots of different styles out there and some exciting ideas. Pamela has suggested looking at the templates over here. Another reminder that we'll be using the more academic version, a CV, rather than the North American version of a résumé:
A curriculum vitae (CV) provides an overview of a person's experience and other qualifications. In some countries, a CV is typically the first item that a potential employer encounters regarding the job seeker and is typically used to screen applicants, often followed by an interview, when seeking employment. The curriculum vitae is comparable to a résumé in many countries, although in English Canada and the United States it is substantially different.
A résumé is a simpler document while the CV is expected to thoroughly outline your education and your professional history (think jobs, volunteer work, publications, presentations etc...). In the words of the University of Waterloo's Career Services:



What is a curriculum vitae?
 A presentation of credentials for a research/teaching position in a university, a research institute,
or company with R&D requirements. A résumé (two pages maximum) is prepared for employers
outside the academic and research environment
 An indispensable job hunting tool that represents an objective, factual, personal history of you -
an advertisement designed to market you by highlighting your abilities and future potential
 A summary of your career aspirations, educational background, employment experience,
achievements, and interests




Key headings to include in your cv:


  • Name
  • Address/Telephone/Email
  • Citizenship

  • Research and/or Professional Inter ests
  • Education/Professional  Training/Certifications
  • Employment
  • Publications
  • Presentations
  • Awards/Scholarships
  • Professional Affiliations
  • Volunteer Work
  • Languages
  • Hobbies





Here are some creative takes on CVs:
Cool Blog Sociale - 10 July 2008 - Creative hire Resume T-shirt by BlackBirdTees B
From McGill University, here is a useful video outlining the elements of a cv. Also from McGill, a very handy cv writing guide.




HOMEWORK due before Monday's Class:


Students will choose two researchers in their field who use delicious and write a paragraph (as a blog comment on THIS post) noting:
      • The importance of each researcher
      • The types of resources each researcher bookmarks
      • The clarity and/or style of tagging that each researcher employs
Remember, if you post a comment under an alias, make sure I know who you are by sending me an e-mail!






For those of you who don't read the comments. Here is some additional help:



Some ways to find people using delicious.




You might check out the scientists you have followed on Twitter and see if any of them use delicious (look at their blogs)



You can also do a google search for researchers/key people in your field, have a look at their blogs and see if they have a delicious tag cloud.




I know I was involved with an creative writing new media online course and I was interested in their delicious links: http://www.delicious.com/cwnm


Howard Rheingold, a key player in my field and in new media in general (you might be interested too!): http://delicious.com/hrheingold


I mentioned in class (and on my cv) that I'm part of the Transliteracy Research Group so I keep up to date with those bookmarks too: http://www.delicious.com/transliteracy

Of course, our class is on delicious too: http://delicious.com/ales204






An interesting article on how to use delicious in research: go here




Note: delicious is still working out some bugs due to the move from Yahoo... you can read about it here.





Friday, October 7, 2011

Effective PowerPoint Presentation

Hello everybody!

I had such a wonderful Wednesday morning in your company; thank you!

Thank you also very much for your comments on the class blog and twitter.

As many of you mentioned, a PowerPoint can take many forms. In some occasions a PowerPoint is used to sell a product or an idea, other times it is used to present the results of a study. In all cases, the PowerPoint must target an audience and must be created with a precise objective in mind. Mine was containing more text that I’m usually comfortable with. The reason for so much text was that I wanted you to use my PowerPoint as notes that you can refer to later during the semester. In other words, I have adjusted my presentation to my audience’s (you) needs.

The best piece of advice is obviously to have fun and to be creative while making and presenting your PowerPoint. This is also an advice that I try to apply in my life in as many situations as possible!!

Have a great weekend!

MC

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Lecture 13: Powerful Presentations

Today Marie-Claude will give the lecture on how to make strong, professional presentations.
Image from here.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Module 5: Slick Presentations

Being a good presenter is not just about using the right words and maintaining strong body language, but it's also about an engaging powerpoint. Here is a post from Jessica Meher that highlights some slick presentations that definitely kill the "death by powerpoint" feeling.


1. Clean Pitch to the Enterprise
Trademark Interactive helps companies improve their pay-per-click campaigns using sophisticated algorithms to control bidding. In this presentation, they’ve boiled down their math to arrive at a critical point that resonates—a 23% improvement—and therein lays the coup. Marketers fall over themselves trying to do 23% better in almost anything.






2. Beautiful Media Barons
TV producers and media companies rely on top-notch presentations to woo the business of prospective advertisers. Discovery Communications, producers of well-known channels including Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, and TLC, set the bar high with outstanding presentations that come to life onscreen, such as this one.








3. Hire Me
When was the last time you saw a cover letter packaged up as an online presentation? This presentation shows creative initiative and instantly separates the author from the crowd. It goes without saying that this applicant got the interview. Get ready to see more of these—both cover letters and “presumes.”








4. Dramastic
Translation? Dramastic means dramatic, fantastic, and even a little bit of drastic. So here they are— Dramastic Presentations of the Decade. From climate change to Google search to credit crisis to tweeting from outer space, there’s a presentation for everything.












5. Dear Impassioned Traveler
It’s true; you don’t need a giant designer’s budget to create a presentation that turns heads. Tread Light Travels is an up and coming travel agency offering unique tour programs in Brazil. Their passion and expertise comes through clearly in this presentation, not to mention the great color scheme and effective use of voice-over that leave a lasting impression.










6. Lifting the SlideRocket Hood
To stretch your mind a bit, check out the SlideRocket presentation builder overview. On top of being an excellent presentation in its own right, these slides lift the hood on powerful features not typically associated with presentations, including presentation analytics, live Twitter feeds, lead generation forms, collaboration, web meetings and a gaggle of other innovative capabilities.














7. Presentation News Release
It's always great to link great content with your press releases, and a "presentation news release" may just fit the bill for you. With pleasing music and slide transitions, this presentation no doubt was a boost for Rumblefish.








 

Monday, October 3, 2011

Module 5: Labs

This week in the lectures we are focussing on ways to disseminate our research. In the labs, we'll get to practise two main ways. We'll be making a poster (from a science article) and we'll then have to present that poster. The latter will be graded by the TAs in class.

Here is the rubric for the poster presentation you'll give at the end of the lab. Take a look so you'll have an idea of what you need to include in your poster: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CTk9FMWoEhSrMEeauMfjEYgcLU5Vl7L-GYORVj4Xq08/edit?hl=en_US



Also have a read of this reference guide to creating posters: http://www.ncsu.edu/project/posters/NewSite/documents/QuickReferenceV3.pdf



Colin Purrington has this useful template for a poster that you might want to follow:




Here are some examples of how NOT to design a poster:

Image from here: http://www.bio.miami.edu/ktosney/file/Bad8X10.pdf


Pecha-kucha (Pecha-k-cha)

The Module 4 lab was a real fun and a very good learning exercise for the students. In D2 section lab we did a pecha-kucha style presentation, a 10x20 format. We had 7 presentations on various topic from food and nutrition to textile to conservation biology.

The topics are:

1. How to Create a Quick and Nutritious Recipe.
2. A Holistic Overview of Everyday Textiles.
3. Canadian Food Guide.
4. Four Major Food Groups.
5. From Pasture to Plate
6. Conservation and the Oil Sands
7. Food Waste and Management.

In this lab exercise we learn that how important it is to know the exact content of each slides
of your presentation and we also understand the fact that 'a picture tells thousand words'.

The upcoming lab will be fun as well, poster is a wonderful way of communication.
Hope to see some wonderful presentations D2 Lab.

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Lecture 12: Disseminating Information


This week, Module 5, we will be looking at various ways of sharing our own research. We will cover the idea of posters and academic papers as well as have an opportunity in the labs to practise presenting a poster.



On Monday we have a special visitor, Maira Quintanilha will be coming to give us a short presentation on how she made her poster that WON at the AIHN graduate student competition.

Here is a brief bio of Maira:


Maira Quintanilha began her Master in Science program at the Department of Agricultural Food and Nutrition Sciences at University of Alberta in the Fall of 2009 after completing a Bachelors degree in Nutrition and Food Science and the Integrated Dietetic Internship Program from the Federal University of Goiás in Brazil. 
During her Masters degree at the University of Alberta, Maira has received many awards and scholarships including the Dr. Elizabeth A. Donald MSc Fellowship in Human Nutrition, second place in the 2011 Alberta Institute for Human Nutrition graduate poster competition and two Graf tuition awards. She was also a finalist in the prestigious Nestlé Student and Trainee Competition at the Canadian Nutrition Society Conference in 2010. Her research interests include health promotion, building a school environment that facilitates healthy choices, and nutrition education. She defended her Masters thesis in August 2011 and is currently working on her process to become a Registered Dietitian in Canada.

HOMEWORK: There is a slight change as Marie Claude will be giving a guest lecture in the next class so FOR FRIDAY: please bring to class a paper/article that you have to read for one of your other classes


Lecture Part I: Effective Posters




Lecture Part II: Academic Essay Writing






Group Essay Writing Activity:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/16FhezNuYEFECx8lDy7ctaT2EDkIxoUjDnZquqbwPxS8/edit?hl=en_US




Remember to comment on the blog with any core questions/ideas pertaining to lectures (see Participation on the syllabus) 





Note: I have had a few students ask me about a CV. It is like a résumé, but more detailed. Here is what Colorado State University says:





How a CV is Different from a Resume
Many job search committees for teaching, graduate school, international or research positions request a CV to get a fuller picture of your academic experiences, accomplishments and interests than a resume can provide.
A resume lists your education, experience and skills. Your CV allows you to go beyond listing your relevant experiences and accomplishments; you can also convey the substance of those experiences and accomplishments.
Unlike a resume, which is usually about one page long, CVs vary in length, from about two to five pages, depending on the applicant's relevant experiences.

Pecha ohh Kucha

Last week's lab was fun as usual. The students in the Monday lab formed groups of at least three members each. They clustered according to their programs of study or passions (that were related to their programs of study). After about 45 minutes of 'Pecha' development, it was time to show the whole class what they had prepared. Each group brought something unique in their presentations. These ranged from slide designs to the order of presentations. We had some glitches though, some groups had problems with their 'slide timings'. After each presentation, other students and I evaluated each group's performance and pointed out some areas of public presentation that required some attention. This was a good opportunity for other students watching to acquire some presentation skills.

The Tuesday lab had the same structure with the Monday lab. The students all developed their presentations in about 40 minutes!!! The funny part of it was that we had 50 minutes for the lab since another class was waiting. We managed to get two groups to present their slides. I told the others that they would present theirs in the next lab, with the hope that we will have time.

Pecha Kucha _ quick fun!

The Pecha Kucha lab was a huge success!

I was very impressed with the students' ability to design Powerpoint presentations quickly and work together in groups.

The topics that were covered were:

The Effects of Drinking
Saving the Environment
Depression and University Students
The Health Effects of Drinking

These students are definitley driven to promote health and well-being!


I found this interesting article on Science Daily. Thought some of you might be interested to learn about how we recognize faces - an important aspect of communication.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110929122753.htm


I think this up coming lab this week will be very helpful for the students. Making good posters is not easy!

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Lab update

The labs have been going very well and the students are very excited about their Community Service-Learning (CSL) placements! I have students that are completing placements in

Voices for Choices
Writer's Guild of Alberta
Alberta Caregivers Association
U of A's InforLink
and U of A's Sustain SU (Formerly ECOS)

They are using their knowledge, skills and abilities, some of which they previously had and are enhancing and some of which they are developing now, from this course to assist the organizations with their communications, outreach and various other projects. The students have all been posting on their own blog of their experiences with their projects and are in the midst of all the action right now!

In labs we have been troubleshooting issues with, for example, how to deal with organizing all their social media and online tools they are using (e.g. keep the same login and password for all, but what security issues does this pose...?) as well as discussing topics related to balancing community service with school work, "work" work (we all gotta eat!) and trying to have some of a social life. They are just like grad students, I swear! ;)

This coming week we are looking forward to competing the poster activity, and seeing how creative and yet professional we can all be. A lesson learned first-hand in this was creating their professional facebook pages. They look great!

Looking forward to the conintued work these students put forward and learning as much from them as I hope they can learn from me!

Courtney :)