College research highlights the inner nerd
Camosun's Deanna Roozendaal and Dominic Bergeron. Photo by Naomi Kavka.
The School of Arts and Science has introduced a new, informational lunchtime session designed to spotlight the research being done by Camosun faculty.
Open to faculty, students, and the general public, the first of these so-called Brown Bag Sessions took place on Oct. 2 with Dominic Bergeron and David Reagan starting the series off with a good, swift kick to the cerebellum.
The catalyst for the formation of these sessions was the desire to spread the fruits from all of the research to the college and community.
“Faculty are doing such great work—training, publishing, talking to their peers,” says Deanna Roozendaal, associate dean of Arts and Science. “Why just read a report?”
For Bergeron, a cell biologist and current chair of the Biology Department, it was an opportunity to talk about the development of a hybrid Biology class between Camosun College and Grade 12 students from local high schools.
“[Hybrid] means that part of the class will be online and part of it will be at Camosun,” explains Bergeron.
Bergeron’s model splits lectures up with a learning object, such as using social networking website Second Life, to explore human anatomy.
“We don’t want the students to sit there and look at a video or PowerPoint slides for an hour and a half. They’re going to lose interest very quickly,” says Bergeron.
Each year, select faculty members at the college are given two months to work on their favourite research project. This is known as Staff Development (SD) time.
Proposals are sent to department chairs who green-light the best and most promising proposals from faculty.
At the end of the SD time, these instructors submit reports that then make the rounds at the college.
For longtime Psychology professor Reagan, SD time is a blessing. “This aspect of our professional development really gives us the time to delve deeper into topics and stay current with our research,” says Reagan. “It’s really a wonderful activity.”
Reagan used SD time to keep up to date on the advances in neuroscience, probing the latest insights into the brain and human personality.
“This is all introductory level,” he says, “I’m certainly not a neuroscientist but psychology has taken such a turn into neuroscience that my research is certainly at the most basic level.”
Meanwhile, Roozendaal hopes that by sharing the SD work amongst faculty, other college staff, students, and the community at large everyone will “recognize the intellectual development that happens continuously.”
Two more information session will take place this semester. Though no schedule of speakers has been confirmed, there will be sessions on Oct. 30 and Nov. 27.
The lunchtime series is scheduled to resume again in the new year.
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