#uwaterloo — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #uwaterloo, aggregated by home.social.
-
-
All good things must end, field trips and degree programs alike.
We learned a lot that first Field Trip, as did the marvelous students who joined us on it.
Feedback from them: fourteen days is a long time -- for travelling, for staying in a hostel, for examining museums, for spending money -- ten days would be enough.
We spent our last day seeing people off, before heading back to Schiphol for our return flight. Bye AMS, hello YYZ!
-
The Katten Kabinet is an art gallery dedicated to all works involving cats, which included multiple works in vivo.
Not a place for the ailurophobe or the allergic, it was nonetheless a pleasant space to while away an hour or two and skritch the ears of the many docents.
-
Hortus Botanicus, the Amsterdam botanical garden, was a pleasant morning visit, a combination of cool spring outdoors and sticky tropical indoors.
Again, not a typical "museum," but it was comprised of authentic artefacts intentionally displayed in a way that fostered learning.
It had a nice little outdoor cafe too, whose coffee fostered reflection and discussion.
-
The 2010 World Press Photo Contest award winners were displayed at the Oudekerk in the centre of town. The ancient church made an excellent open gallery where there was always something to look at.
The first Field Trip was so long that we were there for Mother's Day. A large vase of tulips was at the entrance of the Oude Kerk to provide every visiting mother a flower on the day.
https://www.worldpressphoto.org/collection/photocontest/2010
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oude_Kerk,_Amsterdam -
The canals were a constant companion on our walks between museums. Most were quite active with utility and pleasure boats, while others held disused watercraft and nesting waterfowl.
Where the water was shallow enough, you could also see discarded (no doubt stolen) bicycles.
-
Some museums were more like shops with attached wunderkammers. The Coffee and Tea Museum was one such: an active shop downstairs, and a somewhat jumbled collection of antiquated equipment upstairs.
Still good fodder for discussion:
What story could you tell with these materials?
Why so many similar items?
How might we tease out differences in the technology? -
The day after our big excursion, we met in the hostel to discuss what we'd seen so far, and what we hoped to yet see.
While we met, workers outside were finishing landscaping the grounds surrounding the building.
After dinner, the hostel's cafeteria (breakfast, lunch, dinner should you choose) became an impromptu coffee bar, where you could linger and makes plans for the next day.
-
One of the excursions that were organized (we did a few while we were learning how to Field Trip), was to the Nederlands Openluchtmuseum.
The Dutch Open Air Museum joins together snapshots of Dutch life, both ancient and modern, connecting it together with an impressive line of vintage trams.
Some of the group opted to visit the nearby Kröller-Müller Museum. Two for One!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands_Open_Air_Museum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kröller-Mülller_Museum -
May 5, in contrast, is Liberation Day, to mark the end of the 1940-45 German occupation.
We spent the day on Museumplein checking out the site for an evening concert, and paid a visit to the Sexmuseum, a unique experience for students and staff alike.
More than mere titillation, the museum offers glimpses into the less-than-pleasant past through to the more liberated present.
-
May 4 is Dodenherdenking (Remembrance Day) in the Netherlands. Many of our students opted to visit the large ceremony in Dam Square, but a few joined us at the smaller service at Westerkerk church, at the Homomonument.
This service commemorates those members of the LGBTQ+ community killed during the Second World War, as well as all who have been persecuted because of their sexual orientation.
-
An early excursion was to catch the sights of Keukenhof. This yearly burst of colour and fragrance was a balm for those who'd left late winter at home.
Although not strictly a museum, per se, if you look at it with your "museum eyes on," you can find all sorts of display, focus, and didactic elements.
In the search for techniques, customs, and conventions, this was a rich visual and olfactory experience.
-
The first Field Trip almost didn't happen. In March 2010, the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull erupted, closing Western Europe airspace just weeks before our departure.
We had prepped the students, made the arrangements, spent the money, and now had to explore the world of possible refunds.
Happily, we were able to take advantage of a volcanic-dust-free window of travel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_eruptions_of_Eyjafjallajökull
-
The StayOkay Zeeburg hostel was a distance from Museumplein, but was one of the few that would take a group of our size for 14 days.
Of course, being Amsterdam, it was all quite walkable, and the hostel had a bicycle rental shop for those who wanted to practise shouting "Let Op!" at tourists who wandered into the red cycle lanes.
Our first day focus was "stay awake until eight" to try to shift our body clocks into the local timezone.
-
The tulips are blooming, and exams are well over. It's time for a Field Trip!
The first, longest, largest Field Trip I ever took part in with the Knowledge Integration program was in 2010, to Amsterdam.
Our first cohort, under the leadership of the late Linda Carson, flew from YYZ to AMS via KLM.
Thirty-plus students, 14 days. What were we thinking?!
-
Cycling from Toronto to Waterloo [143 km]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgQCR0UOKnA
"I had it in my head that Waterloo was close to Toronto for some reason. It's not."
#Waterloo #UWaterloo #WaterlooRegion -
Native copper in a sedimentary conglomerate. It is proposed that detrital hematite reacts with copper sulfate solutions to reduce the copper and the fluids carry away the iron and sulfur.
From Calumet and Hekla Mine, Michigan. University of Waterloo Earth Sciences Museum Collection.
#OreCup25 #MinCup25 #Copper #Michigan #UpperPeninsula #UWaterloo
-
No stream tonight. It's my elder's grad from university! Congrats grads! #classof2025 #grad #graduation #commencement #gradparty #westernu #uwo #uwaterloo #uoft #wlu #mcmaster #uoguelph #OCADU #yorku #tmu #VTuber #ENVtuber #VSky #eldenwood #proudmom #gothmama #artprof --> https://twitch.tv/maerchen1313
-
Back-To-The-Classroom with Prof. Larry Smith | Canada in a World Without Rules
-
Mya Cymbaluk playing drums by Columbia Lake.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIcqiKbMnlI
#waterloo #uwaterloo #waterlooregion @waterlooregion -
University of Waterloo students raise awareness about Long COVID – CTVNews
https://www.ctvnews.ca/kitchener/article/university-of-waterloo-students-raise-awareness-about-long-covid/
#uwaterloo #waterlooregion #LongCovid -
Today in irresponsible #science marketing bullshit: #UWaterloo puts out a real turd of a press release, linked below.
The press release: "[our stuff] senses glucose levels for diabetics more accurately than ever before"
The actual research: basically a better antenna that can distinguish between distilled water and a ~25000 mg/dL glucose solution absent any other factors. For context: At around 500 mg/dL you're dead.
Link to the press release:
https://uwaterloo.ca/news/media/no-more-needles-tracking-blood-sugar-your-wrist -
Sally and Dalia. Twin sisters from Gaza, they were admitted to the University of Waterloo's PhD program in Systems Design Engineering through the Palestinian Students & Scholars At Risk (PSSAR) initiative. Sally and Dalia were killed in an lsraeli airstrike on civilians during the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Their lives ended before they could even begin their journey.
#freePalestine #uwaterloo #bds #divest #palestine #endTheGenocide
-
Aw, this is kind of lovely. I lived in A Division for a single term in Fall 1996 (and elsewhere in WCRI throughout my university career). I'm not surprised it hasn't changed...
-
Zwei Forscher untersuchten die Klimabedingungen für 93 mögliche Austragungsorte Olympischer Winterspiele: „Beim Erreichen der Pariser Klimaziele sind in den 2050er-Jahren noch 50 der 93 Orte für die olympischen Winterspiele ausreichend schneesicher, und 42 in den 2080er-Jahren. Im hohen Emissionsszenario sind es 41 bzw. 27“, sagt Robert Steiger von der Uni Innsbruck.
👉 https://www.uibk.ac.at/de/newsroom/2024/mogliche-olympiastandorte-werden-weniger/?ref=fedi
-
The University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada is contacting alumni & asking for volunteers to review and score incoming Math & Engineering students’ applications to “help us identify exceptional students”. They're asking the volunteers to commit to at least five hours a week next February & March.
I’m just a little taken aback by this. Universities aren’t charities. This is work that would normally be done by paid employees & now they want former students to do it for free?
WTF #uwaterloo ?
-
Early career presenter at #GSAConnects2024 tomorrow:
Dr. Jillian Kendrick
Monday, 23 Sep, 10:55 AM - 11:10 AM, Room 206B
speaking on:
THE HAMMER AND THE CRUCIBLE: PETROLOGICAL RESEARCH FROM THE 18TH TO THE 21ST CENTURY
the talk is part of the Chris Yakymchuk Session.