Research Chair announced for STEM Teaching and Learning
Simon Fraser University has announced that Rina Zazkis, Associate Dean of Education at Simon Fraser University, has been appointed the new Research Chair in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Teaching and Learning, The announcement was made by the Honorable Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science.
Canadian government and educators want more students in these four, key academic subject areas. Zazkis will focus research in the area of improvement of “training for high school mathematics teachers.”
“My research program will help strengthen the preparation of high school mathematics teachers,” says Zazkis. “The Canada Research Chairs program will provide an innovative contribution to mathematics teacher education, which in turn will contribute to the quality of mathematics teaching and the successful experiences of learners.”
Internships and Startups combine
The Globe and Mail reports that the provision of internships at various startup companies will provide students the necessary opportunities for the demonstration and identification of the students’ interests, skills, and talents.
Within their post-secondary education, Canadian students acquire “both fundamental expertise in their subject areas and a competency for learning and acquiring new skills.” The core knowledge tied to flexibility makes students better suited for the knowledge economy.
Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, Navdeep Bains, made the recommendation for “educational institutions and businesses [to] ’expand work-integrated learning programs?for Canadians at every stage of their careers.’”
Students and faculty being helped by Canadian universities in light of immigration ban
The Globe and Mail said, “The American immigration ban that is the subject of a battle between Donald Trump and the country’s courts has mobilized universities around the world because it strikes right at the heart of the principles of higher education.”
Based on an executive order from America President Donald J. Trump, seven predominantly Muslim countries’ citizens have been barred from entrance into the United States, but a federal judge has suspended the order from the President.
Canadian universities have rapidly mobilized to open admission or research labs for students and faculty that have been left ’high and dry’ by the ban from the United States. This has been seen as a “fundamental threat to the free exchange of ideas.”
Scott Douglas Jacobsen is an AUSU Councillor. He works with various organizations, and runs In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, and In-Sight Publishing.
