L.M. (Les) Lavkulich - Integrating Science, Environment and Equity

L.M. (Les) Lavkulich – Integrating Science, Environment and Equity

May 11, 2012

Webcast sponsored by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by UBC Faculty of Forestry’s TerreWEB Seminar Series’ “Perspectives on Challenges for Effective Communication of Science and Global Change. Communication is the most important biological activity that allows species, including Homo sapiens, to survive. In our complex, and some might argue, “detached from nature” world, academic communication has not kept pace with population growth, affluence and technology. The human desire is for more but the Earth from a human dimension is finite. Human impacts on our natural environment are increasing in intensity, in geographic space and in ways that are not predicted. There is a recurring sentiment that we are heading for a place we do not want to go! Science education and effective communication provides a framework for informed debate to facilitate the emergence of shared, equitable values and governance policies that could change our future direction. We must understand what is natural science, how we interpret science and how we use science to sustain the human enterprise. Emergent technologies help in understanding science and through communication, its equitable applications. We need tomorrow’s thinking to solve today’s problems caused by yesterday’s actions.

L.M. (Les) Lavkulich is professor emeritus of Soil Science and Resource Management and Environmental Studies at UBC. Born in Alberta, he received his B.Sc and M.Sc (1963) from the University of Alberta and Ph.D. from Cornell University (1966). He has offered a range of courses at UBC including soil chemistry and mineralogy, pedology and perspectives on resources and environment.

He helped develop the interdisciplinary Resource Management and Environmental Studies program and the Institute for Resources and Environment (1979-2004). He was Head of Soil Science from 1980 to 1990. His focus is on student education and student development. He has served on over 200 graduate student committees as supervisor, committee member, thesis examiner and is still learning. With his graduate students and colleagues he has published over 200 refereed articles. His adventures have taken him to Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Morocco, Thailand, the Philippines, Brazil and Chile and several countries within the European Union. Les serves as the Chair of the TerreWEB Program.

Relevant Books and Articles from UBC Library

Oka, G., Thomas, L., & Lavkulich, L. (2014). Soil assessment for urban agriculture: A Vancouver case study. Journal of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, 14(3), 657-669.

Grand, S., & Lavkulich, L. (2008). Reactive soil components and pedogenesis of highly productive coastal podzols. Geochimica Et Cosmochimica Acta, 72(12), A323-A323.

Lavkulich, L., & Arocena, J. (2011). Luvisolic soils of canada: Genesis, distribution, and classification. Canadian Journal of Soil Science, 91(5), 781-806. doi:10.4141/CJSS2011-014 [Link]

Yuan, G., & Lavkulich, L. (1995). Environmental phosphorus indices in manure amended soils in the fraser basin of british columbia, canada. Journal of Environmental Science and Health Part B: Pesticides, Food Contaminants and Agricultural Wastes, (6), 841-841.

UBC Research Guides

Soil Science

Forestry

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Liza Piper – Climate [Change] and the Nature of Canada

May 11, 2012

Webcast sponsored by Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by Green College. Lisa Piper is Professor at the Department of History and Classics, University of Alberta, and specializes in the field of environmental history. Liz Piper is currently involved in a research project that examines the relationship between disease outbreaks and environmental change in the North, with a focus on the Mackenzie and Yukon river basins in the period between 1860 and 1970.

Select Articles Available at UBC Library

Douglas, I., & Ebrary Academic Complete (Canada) Subscription Collection. (2013). Cities: An environmental history. London: I. B. Tauris.

Duke, D. F. (2006). Canadian environmental history: Essential readings. Toronto, ON: Canadian Scholars’ Press.

Kheraj, S. (2013). Inventing Stanley park: An environmental history. Vancouver: UBC Press.

Chakrabarti, R., & Jadavpur University. Department of History. (2006). Does environmental history matter?: Shikar, subsistence, sustenance, and the sciences. Kolkata: Readers Service.

UBC Library Research Guides

Geography

Natural Resources Conservation

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Jonathan Haidt – The Groupish Gene: Hive psychology and the Origins of Morality and Religion

May 8, 2012

There is a near universal interest in morality that has sparked thought-provoking inquiry for thousands of years. Much of that inquiry proceeded without the benefit of modern cognitive science, but that is now changing. And the change promises to shed new light on morality, particularly its practices, development, and the psychology behind ethical thought. In this series we bring together speakers from a vast array of disciples–from philosophy and law to biology and psychology–to discuss cutting edge research in the cognitive science of morality. Dr. Haidt is a Professor in the Social Psychology area of the Department of Psychology at the University of Virginia. He studys morality and emotion, and how they vary across cultures. He is also active in positive psychology (the scientific study of human flourishing) and study positive emotions such as moral elevation, admiration, and awe. Dr. Haidt’s research these days focuses on the moral foundations of politics, and on ways to transcend the “culture wars” by using recent discoveries in moral psychology to foster more civil forms of politics. Morality, by its very nature, makes it hard to study morality. It binds people together into teams that seek victory, not truth. It closes hearts and minds to opponents even as it makes cooperation and decency possible within groups.

Select Articles and Books from UBC Library

Haidt, J. (2007). The new synthesis in moral psychology. Science, 316(5827), 998-1002. doi:10.1126/science.1137651 [Link]

Haidt, J. (2012) For revealing the psychology of partisanship. Foreign Policy, (197), 110. [Link]

Haidt, J. (2013). Moral psychology for the twenty-first century. Journal of Moral Education, 42(3), 281-297. doi:10.1080/03057240.2013.817327 [Link]

Keyes, C. L. M., Haidt, J., & PsycBOOKS. (2002). Flourishing: Positive psychology and the life well-lived. Washington: American Psychological Association. [Link]

UBC Library Guides

Psychology

Philosophy

Bertram “Chip” Bruce – Youth Community Informatics: How Young People Use New Media for Community Action and Personal Growth

May 7, 2012

Webcast sponsored by Irving K. Barber Learning Centre and hosted by SLAIS. Bertram (Chip) Bruce is a Professor Emeritus in Library & Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In our Youth Community Informatics project , university students and faculty work with diverse underserved communities to help young people learn about new technologies and develop academic potential through self expression and community building. Participants engage in inquiry units such as video documentaries, community journalism, oral history, multimedia and podcasting, GIS/GPS, protest songs, asset mapping, and setting up community technology center. The activities occur in schools, but also in after-school programs, boys and girls clubs, libraries, museums, and community centers. This presentation covers the background in pragmatism, the inquiry-based activities, the experiences to date, international partnerships, and what we’ve learned. Chip Bruce’s research goals include contributing to a conception of democratic education, meaning both the development of critical, socially-engaged citizens and of learning environments (formal and informal learning centers, home and work, and online), which are themselves democratic. Aspects of this work include research on community inquiry through collaborative community-based work, inquiry-based learning, drawing especially upon scholarship of the American pragmatists and the history of Progressive Education, and technology-enhanced learning, including research on the affordances and constraints of new media for learning.

Select Articles Available at UBC Library

Bruce, B. (1978). Interacting plans. ACM SIGART Bulletin, (66), 8-8. doi:10.1145/1045416.1045426. [Link]

Bruce, B. C., International Reading Association, & International Reading Association, N., DE. (2003). Literacy in the information age: Inquiries into meaning making with new technologies. Newark, Del: International Reading Association.

Bruce, B. (1999). Digital content: The babel of cyberspace. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 42(7), 558-563. [Link]

Bruce, B. (1998). Learning through expression. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 42(4), 306-310. [Link]

UBC Library Research Guides

Library, Archival, and Information Science

Learning Through Literacy and Technology

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2012 CTLT Institute Join us from May 28-31

May 7, 2012

Network with colleagues and share practice and experiences around teaching, learning and technology.

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Digitization program surpasses $1-million mark

May 2, 2012

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World Poetry Exhibition (May 4 to May 25, 2012)

May 2, 2012

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World Poetry Exhibition

May 2, 2012

Image Credit: World Poetry Society

World Poetry Poetic Necklace Exhibit, World Poetry Peace Poems, Photos and Art featured in the at Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, University of British Columbia

Curated by Ariadne Sawyer; World Poetry Society in partnership with VAHMS, this exhibition will present A Poetic Necklace of peace poems from around the world and photographs from award winning photographers displayed on the walls of IKE Cafe in the UBC Library. 150 gift poems will also be available with a posted address for visitors to” a create a peace poem” and send it to ariadnes@uniserve.com Selected poems will be read on The World Poetry Cafe Radio Show and put in the www.worldpoetry.ca site. Award Winning Photos/art by : Jaypee Belarmino, Zayra Yves, Neamat Haidari, Jesus Salgueiro, Ibrahim Honjo, Janet Kvammen, Yilin Wang, Mamta Agarwal and Caroline Nazareno.

Created by poets Ariadne Sawyer and Alejandro Mujica-Olea in 1997, the mandate of the World Poetry Society is to recognize multicultural and multilingual poets and writers, who have written in more than 100 languages spoken in Canada.

L.M. (Les) Lavkulich - Integrating Science, Environment and Equity