scholarly journals How to Code a Sandcastle by J. Funk

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dannielle Sehgal
Keyword(s):  
Gender Gap ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Young Female ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Summer Vacation ◽  
Who Code ◽  
Text Color ◽  
Text Features ◽  
The University ◽  
Linear Manner

Funk, Josh. How to Code a Sandcastle. Illustrated by Sara Palacios, Viking, 2018. How to Code a Sandcastle, written by Josh Funk, is endorsed as a “Girls Who Code” book. Founded in 2013, the mission of Girls Who Code is to close the gender gap in technology. One of the tools they use to help them reach their young female target audience is children’s literature. The story begins with the protagonist, Pearl, comically explaining a variety of challenges she encountered when building a sandcastle at the beach. Now, on the last day of her summer vacation, Pearl has decided to recruit the help of her robot, Pascal, to build her sandcastle. Pearl gives instructions to Pascal, using code, and explains the coding concepts of sequence, loop, and if-then-else to the reader as they relate to the task of building her sandcastle. These concepts are introduced and explained to the young readers in a fun and engaging manner. The text features of this book are eye catching and educational. Josh Funk strategically changes the text color to highlight coding vocabulary and he draws the reader’s attention to coding commands by changing the text font when Pearl is giving instructions to Pascal. Speech bubbles are used throughout the book in an appealing, non-linear manner. The illustrations are interesting, colourful, and visually captivating to all readers, young and old. The images are crafted with purpose as they enhance the reader’s ability to make meaning of the coding concepts by providing them with visual information to complement and reinforce the descriptions given in the text. The last two pages of the book, Pearl and Pascal’s Guide to Coding, give a more in-depth explanation of the coding concepts, providing extra support for children and adults who may be new to coding. This book is an entertaining and educational must read! Highly Recommended: 4 stars out of 4Reviewer: Dannielle Sehgal Dannielle Sehgal is a kindergarten teacher and graduate student at the University of Alberta. Dannielle is passionate about her career and loves discovering new picture books that she can bring to her classroom and read to her students.  

scholarly journals Listen, Slowly by T. Lai

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyle Marshall
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Public Library ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Studies ◽  
Bicultural Identity ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Summer Vacation ◽  
The Face ◽  
The University ◽  
Cultural Colonialism

Lai, Thanhha. Listen, Slowly. New York: HarperCollins Children’s Books, 2015. Print.Twelve year-old Mai wants nothing more for her summer vacation than to spend her days on the beach hanging out with her best friend, getting to know her first romantic crush. Instead, her parents expect Mai to chaperone her grandmother (Bà) on a return trip to Vietnam to uncover the secrets of her grandfather’s disappearance and death in “THE WAR” over 40 years ago. Despite being raised in a home that carried on some Vietnamese traditions, Mai’s parents could not have prepared her for the heat, mosquitoes or infrequent Internet access in her grandfather’s rural northern village. In a display of her preteen angst, Mai immediately starts counting down the days until she can return to the known comforts of life back home in California.With time, however, her language skills improve and she begins to form relationships in the community, particularly with Ut, a girl her age with a serious interest in frogs, and Minh, the local teenage translator with a Texan drawl he acquired through his international studies in the United States. In Mai’s ensuing journey she travels across Vietnam, from the rural rhythms of her ancestral village to the colonial splendour of Hanoi and the humid chaos of Ho Chi Minh City. The nation’s contrasts provide her with an unforgettable summer that far surpasses anything she could have imagined with her initial Laguna Beach plans.After receiving a 2011 National Book Award and 2012 Newbery Medal Honor for Inside Out and Back Again, Thanhha Lai’s second novel continues to explore Vietnamese-American experiences. In contrast to her first book’s focus on a refugee family’s journey, Listen, Slowly examines the frustrations of a second-generation American attempting to reconcile her Vietnamese cultural deficits. Mai’s path to settle within her bicultural identity is an experience familiar to thousands of children her age, who are raised in part with traditions from their parents’ country yet never fully feel immersed in that culture. In her protagonist, Lai has created a relatable character who eventually, and maybe reluctantly, shows capacity for adaptation and resilience in the face of adversity.Lai depicts a vibrant Vietnam with verdant landscapes and mouth-watering descriptions of the nation’s notoriously fresh cuisine. The novel’s humour generally hits the mark, including a hilarious passage of cultural colonialism in which Mai convinces young Vietnamese girls to transform their comfortable underwear to thongs. While the disruption of the story’s pace during philosophical Vietnamese translations might test the patience of young readers, this challenge will be welcomed by many. Overall, this story of adventure, family history and bicultural identity is one that should have a home in all school and public libraries.Recommended: 3 out of 4 StarsReviewer: Kyle MarshallKyle Marshall is the School-Aged Services Intern Librarian for Edmonton Public Library. He graduated with his MLIS from the University of Alberta in June 2015, and is passionate about diversity in children's and youth literature.

scholarly journals Summerlost by A. Condie

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanne Pearce
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Graphic Design ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Summer Vacation ◽  
The Family ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
The University ◽  
Car Accident ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Drunk Driver

Condie, Ally. 2016. Summerlost. New York: Dutton Children’s Books. Print.Cedar’s Mother has brought Cedar and her brother to Iron Creek, her hometown, for the summer. They have bought a house that her mother intends to rent over the rest of the year and keep it for them as a summer home. For Cedar, this is not just any ordinary summer vacation. Only a year ago, her father and brother Ben were killed in a car accident with a drunk driver. Haunted by memories of a father and brother no longer with them, the family is struggling to move forward, each of them dealing with the changes and the grief. Shortly after they arrive, Cedar finds a friend in Leo, a boy her age who is working at the local Shakespeare festival. Through Leo, she manages to get a job at the festival as well. She also learns about the legendary Lisette Chamberlain, a local girl who got her start in the festival, and later moved on to a career in Hollywood. As with many cases of stardom, Lisette had several romances and met a tragic end, when she was found dead in a local hotel.  Cedar is fascinated by Chamberlain’s story, and she and Leo concoct a plan to offer private “Lisette” tours for festivalgoers, for extra money. Hiding their tours from festival officials and their parents prove difficult and then Cedar stumbles across a detail that might shed light on the mystery of Chamberlain’s death.Summerlost is a surprisingly layered story about a young girl’s formative summer. Intermixed between the sleuth work of Cedar and Leo, is the struggle of a family coming to terms with an immeasurable loss. Cedar must not only manage her own feelings of loss and confusion, but she is growing old enough to see her mother’s and brother’s struggles as well. The friendship between Leo and Cedar is quite wonderful, platonic and sincere. I will admit the Lisette Chamberlain mystery, while compelling in the beginning, became a bit tedious and felt anticlimactic in the end. Nevertheless, the story is touching mix of daydreams and hard truths. This story will appeal to both young and old. The young will see themselves in Cedar as they are now and adults will be taken back to their own childhoods, to relive their own bittersweet summers.Recommended: 3 out of 4 starsReviewer: Hanne PearceHanne Pearce has worked at the University of Alberta Libraries since 2004. Aside from being an avid reader, she has continuing interests in writing, photography, graphic design and knitting.

Centres for Health Evidence Demonstration Project

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tracy Stewart ◽  
Denise Koufogiannakis ◽  
Robert S.A. Hayward ◽  
Ellen Crumley ◽  
Michael E. Moffatt
Keyword(s):  
Evidence Based Practice ◽  
Demonstration Project ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Research Opportunities ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Information Usage ◽  
University Of Manitoba ◽  
The University ◽  
Hospital Wards ◽  
Support Evidence

This paper will report on the establishment of the Centres for Health Evidence (CHE) Demonstration Project in both Edmonton at the University of Alberta and in Winnipeg at the University of Manitoba. The CHE Project brings together a variety of partners to support evidence-based practice using Internet-based desktops on hospital wards. There is a discussion of the CHE's cultural and political experiences. An overview of the research opportunities emanating from the CHE Project is presented as well as some early observations about information usage.

scholarly journals Is the Letter ‘t’ in the Word ‘gourmet’? Disruption in Task-Evoked Connectivity Networks in Adults with Impaired Literacy Skills

NeuroSci ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-94
Author(s):  
Kulpreet Cheema ◽  
William E. Hodgetts ◽  
Jacqueline Cummine
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Disorders ◽  
Brain Networks ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Resting State Networks ◽  
Skilled Readers ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Probe Task ◽  
The University ◽  
General Networks

Much work has been done to characterize domain-specific brain networks associated with reading, but very little work has been done with respect to spelling. Our aim was to characterize domain-specific spelling networks (SpNs) and domain-general resting state networks (RSNs) in adults with and without literacy impairments. Skilled and impaired adults were recruited from the University of Alberta. Participants completed three conditions of an in-scanner spelling task called a letter probe task (LPT). We found highly connected SpNs for both groups of individuals, albeit comparatively more connections for skilled (50) vs. impaired (43) readers. Notably, the SpNs did not correlate with spelling behaviour for either group. We also found relationships between SpNs and RSNs for both groups of individuals, this time with comparatively fewer connections for skilled (36) vs. impaired (53) readers. Finally, the RSNs did predict spelling performance in a limited manner for the skilled readers. These results advance our understanding of brain networks associated with spelling and add to the growing body of literature that describes the important and intricate connections between domain-specific networks and domain-general networks (i.e., resting states) in individuals with and without developmental disorders.

scholarly journals Access to Healthcare for Immigrant Children in Canada

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (9) ◽  
pp. 3320
Author(s):  
Bukola Salami ◽  
Alleson Mason ◽  
Jordana Salma ◽  
Sophie Yohani ◽  
Maryam Amin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Social Determinant ◽  
Immigrant Children ◽  
Access To Healthcare ◽  
Cultural Barriers ◽  
Immigrant Parents ◽  
Financial Barriers ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
The University

Immigrants experience poorer health outcomes than nonimmigrants in Canada for several reasons. A central contributing factor to poor health outcomes for immigrants is access to healthcare. Previous research on access to healthcare for immigrants has largely focused on the experience of immigrant adults. The purpose of this study was to investigate how immigrants access health services for their children in Alberta, Canada. Our study involved a descriptive qualitative design. Upon receiving ethics approval from the University of Alberta Research Ethics Board, we invited immigrant parents to participate in this study. We interviewed 50 immigrant parents, including 17 fathers and 33 mothers. Interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed according to the themes that emerged. Findings reveal that systemic barriers contributed to challenges in accessing healthcare for immigrant children. Participants identified several of these barriers—namely, system barriers, language and cultural barriers, relationship with health professionals, and financial barriers. These barriers can be addressed by policymakers and service providers by strengthening the diversity of the workforce, addressing income as a social determinant of health, and improving access to language interpretation services.

scholarly journals Success factors in the realization of large ice projects in education

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-12
Author(s):  
Arno Pronk ◽  
Peng Luo ◽  
Qingpeng Li ◽  
Fred Sanders ◽  
Marjolein overtoom ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Success Factors ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Learning By Doing ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
The North ◽  
3D Printed ◽  
Good Learning ◽  
The University ◽  
Ice Shell ◽  
Motivation And Learning

There has been a long tradition in making ice structures, but the development of technical improvements for making ice buildings is a new field with just a handful of researchers. Most of the projects were realized by professors in cooperation with their students as part of their education in architecture and civil engineering. The following professors have realized ice projects in this setting: Heinz Isler realized some experiments since the 1950s; Tsutomu Kokawa created in the past three decades several ice domes in the north of Japan with a span up to 25 m; Lancelot Coar realized a number of fabric formed ice shell structures including fiberglass bars and hanging fabric as a mold for an ice shell in 2011 and in 2015 he produced an fabric-formed ice origami structure in cooperation with MIT (Caitlin Mueller) and VUB (Lars de Laet). Arno Pronk realized several ice projects such as the 2004 artificially cooled igloo, in 2014 and 2015 dome structures with an inflatable mold in Finland and in 2016–2019, an ice dome, several ice towers and a 3D printed gridshell of ice in Harbin (China) as a cooperation between the Universities of Eindhoven & Leuven (Pronk) and Harbin (Wu and Luo). In cooperation between the University of Alberta and Eindhoven two ice beams were realized during a workshop in 2020. In this paper we will present the motivation and learning experiences of students involved in learning-by-doing by realizing one large project in ice. The 2014–2016 projects were evaluated by Sanders and Overtoom; using questionnaires among the participants by mixed cultural teams under extreme conditions. By comparing the results in different situations and cultures we have found common rules for the success of those kinds of educational projects. In this paper we suggest that the synergy among students participating in one main project without a clear individual goal can be very large. The paper will present the success factors for projects to be perceived as a good learning experience.

James Bertram Collip, 1892-1965

1973 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 234-267 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Family Life ◽  
Clinical Medicine ◽  
National Research Council ◽  
Pituitary Hormones ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
University Of Toronto ◽  
Mcgill University ◽  
Medical Importance ◽  
The University ◽  
Happy Family

James Bertram Collip was a pioneer in endocrine research, especially in its biochemical aspects. Following an excellent training in biochemistry under Professor A. B. Macallum, F.R.S., at the University of Toronto, he spent thirteen years at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. There was a momentous year at the University of Toronto about midway through the Edmonton period; this coincided with the discovery of insulin by Sir Frederick G. Banting, F.R.S., and Professor Charles S. Best, F.R.S., and the experience altered the course of his career. Henceforth, Professor Collip’s life was dominated by an urge to discover hormones that would be useful in clinical medicine. Success attended these efforts, first in the isolation of the parthyroid hormone, called parathormone, while he was at the University of Alberta and later in the identification of placental and pituitary hormones during particularly fruitful years at McGill University. There were other important facets to Professor Collip’s career. These included the training of young scientists, many of whom subsequently came to occupy positions of responsibility, work with the National Research Council of Canada, and in his latter years an important contribution as Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Western Ontario. In addition to a life of fulfilment through accomplishments of scientific and medical importance, Professor Collip’s career was enriched by a happy family life and by the friendship of a host of individuals who were attracted to his brilliance as a scientist and his warm personality.

Development of an agronomically superior blackleg resistant canola cultivar in Brassica napus L. using doubled haploidy

1995 ◽  
Vol 75 (2) ◽  
pp. 437-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. R. Stringam ◽  
V. K. Bansal ◽  
M. R. Thiagarajah ◽  
D. F. Degenhardt ◽  
J. P. Tewari
Keyword(s):  
Brassica Napus ◽  
Doubled Haploid ◽  
Leptosphaeria Maculans ◽  
Resistance Breeding ◽  
Breeding Method ◽  
Brassica Napus L ◽  
Breeding Lines ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Blackleg Resistance ◽  
The University

The doubled haploid breeding method and greenhouse screening using cotyledon bio-assay were successfully applied to transfer blackleg resistance from the Australian cultivar Maluka (Brassicas napus), into susceptible advanced B. napus lines from the University of Alberta. This approach for blackleg resistance breeding was effective and efficient as several superior blackleg resistant breeding lines were identified within 4 yr from the initial cross. One of these lines (91–21864NA) was entered in the 1993 trials of the Western Canada Canola/Rapeseed Recommending Committee. Key words: Blackleg resistance, Leptosphaeria maculans, doubled haploid, Brassica napus

Clinical quality improvement project: finding a repeatable approach for improving STAT lab testing

2003 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Lynette Lutes ◽  
Sarvesh Logsetty ◽  
Jan McGuinness ◽  
Joan M. Carlson
Keyword(s):  
Quality Improvement ◽  
Pilot Project ◽  
Improvement Project ◽  
Clinical Quality ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Improved Performance ◽  
The University ◽  
Culture Of Quality ◽  
Quality Process ◽  
Clinical Quality Improvement

Explores the development of a clinical quality improvement pilot project at the University of Alberta Hospital and Stollery Children’s Hospital which aimed to establish a team of individuals that could disseminate a culture of quality improvement and develop a framework for a quality process that could be replicated and repeated. Outcomes of the clinical pilot project included improved performance as well as opportunities to learn some key lessons around team membership and involvement.

The effects of burning on Festuca hallii in the parklands of central Alberta

1995 ◽  
Vol 73 (6) ◽  
pp. 937-942 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Sinton Gerling ◽  
Arthur W. Bailey ◽  
Walter D. Willms
Keyword(s):  
Standing Crop ◽  
Growing Season ◽  
Early Spring ◽  
Leaf Length ◽  
Tiller Number ◽  
Phenological Stages ◽  
University Of Alberta ◽  
Festuca Hallii ◽  
Tiller Density ◽  
The University

The response of Festuca hallii (Vassey) Piper to time of burning was examined on the Festuca–Stipa grasslands of the Aspen Parklands at the University of Alberta Ranch located 150 km southeast of Edmonton, Alberta. Two defoliation treatments (burning and mowing) were examined on five dates in 1978 (8 April, 27 April, 1 June, 31 July, and 18 October), corresponding to different phenological stages of F. hallii. Burning and mowing reduced the standing crop of F. hallii produced in the first growing season after treatment, but tiller densities increased. Defoliation in early spring (8 April) had little effect on the standing crop; apparently the increase in tiller density compensated for the reduction in tiller length. Inflorescence density also increased following burning or mowing from 8 April to 1 June. Soil temperature (3 cm deep) on previously burned or mown sites was greater than on the control the year after treatment. Festuca hallii tolerates single burns at any time of the year, but early spring fires have the greatest benefits by increased tillering and standing crop. Key words: standing crop, tiller number, leaf length, litter, defoliation, mowing.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document