Need ideas for what experiential learning聽can聽look like in聽a聽real classroom? Or聽have ideas but not sure how to apply them?聽Find inspiration and answers at our聽Experiential Learning Virtual Showcase,聽running from聽November 8 to 12.

The showcase will include over a dozen unique sessions to help you design and implement innovative approaches to experiential learning in your classroom. Join the聽Spotlight on Experiential Learning panel聽sessions,聽where聽your colleagues will聽discuss聽how they鈥檝e incorporated experiential learning into their courses聽with the help of campus partners.聽Drop into聽any聽of the聽Ask the Experts聽sessions聽for an on-the-spot consultation聽with聽campus experts in accessibility and inclusivity, research ethics, risk management, online learning and more.聽Cap the week off with a keynote from Associate Vice-President (Teaching and Learning), David Hornsby, about the role of universities in developing聽critically engaged citizen scholars.

Find the full showcase schedule and registration details here.

Please outline your role as an I-CUREUS participant (what research support were you providing?)

I was tasked with finishing and documenting a program which uses a suite of software called EEGLab for the Neuroscience of Imagination Cognition and Emotion Research (NICER) Lab. EEGLab is an open source package to clean, process and analyze Electroencephalogram (EEG) data from a variety of acquisition systems.聽EEG systems are widely used in neuroscience and human behaviour research to analyze brain activity, in order to determine which brain regions are active while participants are performing various tasks. A variety of聽neuroscience studies examine things like the effect of music training on children鈥檚 attention. EEGs have very good temporal resolution and can record activity in the brain down to the millisecond, but can only record from broad regions of the brain, due to the limited number of electrodes that can cover the head and the fact that millions of neurons are contributing to the signals received by an electrode.

What problem is this research trying to tackle?

The ERP data provides information which informs hypotheses about which brain regions are involved in various cognitive processes. The problem is that while the brain itself produces electrical signals when active, the data is often littered with 鈥渁rtifacts鈥� 鈥� when a person blinks, squints, moves their head, or clenches their jaw, the signal is distorted by the electrical activity produced by physical movement.

The program I was tasked with completing is designed to essentially improve data collection and processing.聽New lab members often have little or no prior background in EEG systems, so I was also tasked with writing documentation and an initial guide to EEG data processing.

What skills have you gained from the experience?

In order to complete the project, I had to learn how to use the EEGLab system. This system is very popular in the neuroscience community and a very valuable skill to have if I go on to do human behavior research in graduate school, and is great to put on my resume for my graduate school applications.聽I also had to learn聽how to use and program in Matlab, which is a very valuable tool for researchers, for both its built-in capabilities for statistical analysis of data, and for developing custom functional tools to manipulate data.

What would you tell future students considering participating in I-CUREUS?

This is a great program to provide a bit of extra income for textbooks and tuition, while developing real skills that you wouldn鈥檛 get in a classroom setting. Through this program, you can broaden your horizons and get hands-on experience in new research areas that you may want to pursue in future. The program exposes you to the real challenges faced during real research studies prior to working on your honours thesis. It emphasizes the necessity for a detailed timeline prior to beginning a project and the benefit of having this timeline to achieve your goals.

Sprott Competes is ever-expanding as聽聽to the Sprott School of Business, some of which will be used for funding more international case competitions.

A 2013 graduate with a Bachelor’s in Commerce and Marketing shared their thoughts on Sprott Competes.

“My experiences with the Sprott Competes program are overwhelmingly positive, but that’s not to say that it was in the least bit simple or easy. The training we completed to participate in case competitions was rigorous, stressful, thorough, enlightening, and nothing short of the best learning experience (outside the classroom) I could have asked for at Sprott. Within the program, we learned how to leverage our own strengths and experiences, while merging them with our teammates’. We were taught to think holistically about businesses and their environments, and how to come up with creative, feasible and complete solutions to real-life problems that many companies are facing today. In addition, the Sprott Competes program gave me the ability to present my ideas with confidence and conviction by improving my public speaking.”

Mimi Lam,聽a fourth year student in聽Global Financial Management and Systems with a minor in Economics, was pleased with the development of her public speaking skills and the unexpected growth in her confidence gained from Sprott Competes. Also, she had placed significant emphasis throughout her studies on Finance, her area of concentration, but was pleased to discover 聽that Sprott Competes pushed her to become more interdisciplinary. The 杏吧原创 University Discovery Centre wishes Sprott Competes the best of luck in their upcoming case competitions.

To hear more about the experience of a highly engaged Sprott student, visit:聽

By Heather McAlister

Though she may not have begun her studies knowing about the possibilities for her to learn outside the classroom, Mimi quickly found these opportunities to take advantage of. The Discovery Centre made contact with her to hear about her work as the co-president of the (SFSA) and she had plenty of hands-on learning experience to share!

With 16 student associations, Sprott prides itself on promoting a well-rounded student experience. The SFSA is one such organization which focuses on events and activities for finance students related to their field of study. Mimi’s main focus has been on building relationships with industry in the community so students can learn from professionals and also increase the possibility of sponsorship.

SFSA’s most recent event was a Wine and Cheese where Business and Economics students had the opportunity to mingle with industry professionals. Mimi noted that “In finance, it is about who you know and what they know about you. If you want to get a job, you have to know people a lot of the time to get that first interview.鈥�

Some other upcoming goals for SFSA include providing students with background information about careers in finance and timelines for job applications, which many students don’t realize begin in August. SFSA wants to make sure students are prepared to meet these deadlines and that guidance is provided through career information.

Mimi is also the 杏吧原创 student ambassador for the , a team competition where students from all over Canada receive a virtual budget of $100,000 which is used to build an options portfolio. The teams which have the best returns at the end of a 9 week period and have followed the requirements are eligible to win $10,000 as a first place prize.

On top of SFSA, Mimi also shared about her experience with the .聽As the longest standing member and the sector manager of the聽Sprott Investment Fund, Mimi had very positive experiences to share. With the Sprott Investment Fund, Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of International Business students manage an equity portfolio, giving them a taste of real-world business experience and money management. “I鈥檓 always finding things that push me,” she noted.

When asked what she would say to first year students about their upcoming education, Mimi said “don鈥檛 be afraid. Try everything and if you don鈥檛 like it, you don鈥檛 have to do it, but try it all because now is your time to make mistakes and try something you have never done before.”

If you enjoyed this article, you might also enjoy hearing about .

By Heather McAlister

If you would like to learn more or are interested in participating, visit聽

Second year masters student in Art History Emma Hamilton-Hobbs had the opportunity to do her practicum with Library and Archives Canada in Place de la Cit茅, Gatineau. She gained experience handling glass plate and nitrate negatives while collaborating with former and current archivists. She described her work as sometimes “solving a mystery” as she worked on the arrangement and description of the Topley Studio fonds. “I learned how to take initiative when given a project, and I learned that archival work can be both frustrating and rewarding at the same time,” she shared.

Her advice to future students? “I would definitely encourage art history students to participate in a practicum program. Not only do you develop and learn new skills as you progress throughout your placement, but you also make important connections with colleagues at your institution that may lead to professional opportunities down the road. You are getting a “hands-on” experience that would not be available to you in a classroom setting. I also think that it provides you with an opportunity to discover what it is that you want to, or perhaps don’t want to do, in terms of a future career.”

Members of the Ottawa art community also were highly impressed with the program. Catherine Sinclair, Senior Curator at the Ottawa Art Gallery praised the practicum for establishing “valuable connections with future workers in the curatorial/museums/archives fields and hands-on help with research projects and day-to-day office work.”

Professor Stephane Roy, a supervisor of the Art History practicum program shared that “learning Art History in the classroom is one thing, practicing it is another. The practicum program gives students a unique opportunity to work behind the scenes, contribute to a vast array of research projects and exhibitions, and to gain valuable experience before hitting the job market.”

“The City of Ottawa Public Art Program (PAP) benefits from the specialized skills of Art History graduate and undergraduate students to research and write information pertaining to specific artworks in the City of Ottawa Art Collection. These skills enable us to expand the information available to the public pertaining to the artworks on public display. In general students often add to the discussion of new technology and its use. The PAP also benefits from providing the ongoing interaction and skills training that benefits the overall arts community, students learn about conservation, exhibition planning and general museum management.聽The PAP has hired past conservation, museum management and art history interns and practicum students as temporary and full time employees.”-Development Officer for the Public Art Program Jonathan Browns聽on 杏吧原创 Art History practicum students

If you are interested in being involved in the Art History practicum, visit the Art History website for further details. Some community partners for the practicum program include:

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By Heather McAlister

If you enjoyed reading this article, you might also enjoy reading a at the National Gallery and 杏吧原创’s Library and the .

1) Which community partners did you work with? (ie the Ottawa Art Gallery, War Museum etc.)

I had the opportunity to enroll in two different practicums for an overall 1.0 full credit. The first placement I was working in Reference Services at the 杏吧原创 University Library under the direction of the Art History, Music and Film subject specialist librarian (very conveniently located for post-placement study sessions!) For the second placement, I was at the National Gallery of Canada in the Library & Archives. My career interests in art history are actually in libraries, collection development and archival work and so both of these placements were excellent opportunities for me to see what goes on in a busy academic library as well as a specialist art library.

2) What do you feel were the most important skills you gained from this experience? What did you learn that you might not have learned in a classroom?

Of the two placements, the skills I strengthened are predominantly time management, communication and IT skills. Time management became necessary because, even without assigned weekly readings, I found myself more busy than usual during term time. I also had to liaise with professionals, students and the general public during both placements, which gave me more practice communicating in the professional work environment. I also gained further IT skills through my own projects, such as creating PDFs for reference guides in art history and using tools such as Camtasia for the creation of a tutorial library guide video. At the National Gallery, I was able to learn a bit about the databases offered for efficient access to the library鈥檚 vast collection. This overall experience gave me a greater understanding of art librarianship from two different institutions, which I definitely could not have learned in a classroom. As such, it has also made applying for a postgraduate qualification in Library and Information Science an easier process, since I now know where my specific interests are in this field.

3) What would you say to future art history students considering participating in the practicum?

I am confident in saying that the practicum program is an incredible opportunity to take the skills you鈥檙e being taught in the classroom and your own interests within art history to a professional level. Building your resume while studying for your BA is a great way to demonstrate your knowledge of and dedication to your chosen field. At the same time, I think it is also quite important that students should have an understanding that institutions who partake in the practicum program at 杏吧原创 are doing so as a way to share their knowledge, expertise and skills. I believe that a proactive approach is the best way to get the most out of your placement, and will ensure that you always have projects on the go. Do your research before you begin your placement! (I.e. Know the collection and current exhibitions, know the policies of the institution that you are placed with, and have a general idea of potential projects in case you have full agency, but also be open minded to the tasks they may give you).

By Jenna Dufour

If you enjoyed this article, you might also enjoy reading about and the .