NOSM CampMed is accepting applications from students currently in progress with their undergraduate degree for the volunteer positions of Team Lead and Camp and Crime Scene Investigation (CSI) Lead.

NOSM CampMed is a week-long, hands-on medical and health sciences summer camp intended for high school students going into grade 10 and 11 in the fall of 2020. The camp is held on both of NOSM’s host University campuses in July 2020: at Laurentian University on July 6 - 10, 2020 and at Lakehead University on July 13 - 17, 2020.

For more information on this volunteer opportunity, please visit www.nosm.ca/campvolunteer

For more information on the camp itself, please visit www.nosm.ca/campmed

To apply as a volunteer, please complete and submit the Electronic Volunteer Application Form available on the CampMed Volunteer webpage (www.nosm.ca/campvolunteer). The deadline to apply is Wednesday, March 4, 2020.

The Office of Sustainability, partnered with Commute Ontario, invites you to participate in this year’s Carpool Month campaign (carpoolmonth.ca) that is set to take place from February 1 - February 29, 2020.

The month-long campaign aims to encourage faculty, staff, and students to register or log into the Carpool Ontario ride-matching tool (www.carpoolontario.ca), search for potential carpool partners and give carpooling a try!

Faculty, staff and students who log into their existing account or create a new account on Carpool Ontario during the month of February 2020 will be automatically entered into a prize draw for a chance to WIN a $500 gift card towards their gas purchases.

Faculty, staff and students can earn additional entries (no limit to how many!) into the prize draw by referring co-workers and students to register an account on Carpool Ontario. New Carpool Ontario registrants will be asked to provide the email address of the individual who has referred them upon registration.

The prize draw will take place during the week of March 2, 2020.

Congratulations to Dr. Camillo Lento, who received a Distinguished Instructor Award at the Lakehead University Senate meeting held in November. 

Dr. Lento joined Lakehead’s Faculty of Business Administration in 2007 and quickly established a reputation as an enthusiastic, knowledgeable, compassionate, and helpful teacher, winning a Contribution to Teaching Award in 2010. Students consistently praise him for making challenging and often technical material comprehensible and interesting. As one of his students writes, he makes accounting “more interesting than just numbers” by using “lots of real-world examples.” Students commend his use of a diverse range of teaching techniques to ensure that all students understand the material, and frequently note that he is always very helpful when students need assistance or have questions. One of his students describes Dr. Lento as “one of the most influential people in my life. … [Dr. Lento] teaches with such compassion and knowledge [and] every lecture is an inspiration to learn, and to be better at all you can be.”

Dr. Lento is an innovative instructor. He has co-authored a casebook based on his teaching practice that is now in its third edition and has been adopted across the country. He is committed to active learning and has developed a flipped classroom design for introductory financial accounting that has resulted in improved student performance and reduced dropout rates. Using Doodlecast Pro, an iPad app, he has created whiteboard voice-over videos for use in course management systems. In addition, he has created many experiential learning opportunities for his students, such as having his students complete tax returns for international students.

He is also a leading scholar in accounting education, publishing numerous articles in the major journals in the field. As of 2018, he was tied for 24^th in the world amongst accounting education scholars according to an annual survey published by Brigham Young University, and one of his most recent articles on accounting education has been nominated for an American Accounting Association best paper award. He has also given many workshops on teaching and learning, and was the recipient of an Award of Distinction from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario in 2013.

He has successfully supervised many graduate students, and served as a valued faculty mentor to students at all levels.  Particularly noteworthy is the success that his students have achieved in national case competitions, often winning such events.

Finally, he has played a significant educational leadership role in the Faculty of Business Administration, helping to develop the assurance of learning processes within the Faculty as it pursued AACSB accreditation, and taking the lead in pursuing CPA Ontario Accreditation, which led to the development of a Graduate Diploma in Accounting. He has also actively been involved in working on issues related to teaching and learning through CPA Ontario.

Dr. Lento is clearly a distinguished instructor who has made important contributions to teaching and learning at Lakehead and within the accounting profession. In the classroom and as a supervisor and mentor, a scholar in accounting education, and an educational leader, he has made valuable and significant contributions to teaching and learning and is a deserving recipient of the 2019 Distinguished Instructor Award. 

January 20, 2020 – Thunder Bay, Ont.

Lakehead University’s free In Conversation talks are returning to the Thunder Bay Public Library with exciting presentations planned for this semester.

You put WHAT in the lake?! Why whole-lake experiments are necessary to understand human impacts on freshwater – Saturday, Jan. 25

For the past 52 years, researchers have been conducting whole-lake experiments at the IISD-Experimental Lakes Area to understand human impacts on aquatic ecosystems.

These experiments have provided often unexpected results, and have had a major hand in shaping environmental policy both in Canada and around the globe.  

“But why do we need to do experiments in a whole lake? Why can’t you do them in a lab?”, you might ask. Dr. Michael Rennie, Associate Professor at Lakehead University and Research Fellow at the Experimental Lakes Area will explain why, and review some of the experiments (and policy impacts) of both past and ongoing experiments. Join Dr. Rennie for this free In Conversation talk at 2 pm on Saturday, Jan. 25 in the Mary JL Black Community Program Room.

Learn more about Lakehead University’s Wolf Den athletics expansion – Saturday, Feb. 22

Lakehead University is embarking on a $1.8 million campaign to support the construction of the dynamic new Wolf Den athletics facility, a project that students overwhelmingly supported in a referendum in 2018.

Set to open in 2020, the new 30,000 square-foot Wolf Den will be connected and built adjacent to the C.J. Sanders Fieldhouse. Students are contributing $11 million of the $12.8 million construction cost.

The expansion will allow Lakehead to double the space dedicated to weight lifting, cardio and gym areas that the current space provides, for both students and community use.

The Wolf Den will include a multi-purpose gymnasium, modern weightlifting area, new aerobics studio, expanded club team storage and offices, new space for recreational programming, multi-use boardroom, student study areas, a lounge and meditation centre, and a wellness clinic. The new facility will also provide accessibility enhancements for users who have disabilities.

Join Tom Warden, Lakehead’s Athletics Director, for this free In Conversation talk at 2 pm on Saturday, Feb. 22 at Waverley Library.

Canadians, Climate Change and Teaching – Saturday, March 28

Imagine being in the middle of a crisis that, somehow, no one knows much about.

Our recent study of Canadians and climate change found just that. While Canadians are overwhelmingly aware of climate change and concerned about its impacts, many do not know the basic causes and are therefore ill prepared to engage with how to tackle it.

That's not surprising; we also found that most teachers do not teach about climate change and most of those who do, spend little time on it. In fact, we found that many teachers also lack basic knowledge about climate change.

It's no wonder that we're in a climate crisis when we're also in a climate change education crisis. The good news? Most Canadians think climate change should be taught in schools and teachers want professional development to help them teach it.

Join Dr. Paul Berger, Lakehead’s Chair of Graduate Studies & Research in the Faculty of Education, for this free In Conversation talk at 2 pm on Saturday, March 28 at the Brodie Library. Come ready to discuss this. 

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Media: For more information or interviews, please contact Brandon Walker, Communications and Marketing Associate, at (807) 343-8177 or mediarelations@lakeheadu.ca.

Lakehead University is a fully comprehensive university with approximately 9,700 full-time equivalent students and over 2,000 faculty and staff at two campuses in Orillia and Thunder Bay, Ontario. Lakehead has 10 faculties, including Business Administration, Education, Engineering, Graduate Studies, Health & Behavioural Sciences, Law, Natural Resources Management, the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, Science & Environmental Studies, and Social Sciences & Humanities. In 2019, Maclean’s 2020 University Rankings, once again, included Lakehead University among Canada’s Top 10 primarily undergraduate universities, while Research Infosource named Lakehead 'Research University of the Year' in its category for the fifth consecutive year. Visit www.lakeheadu.ca.

Congratulations to Dr. Sarah Jacoba and Dr. Evgeny Chugunov, who each received a Teaching Innovation Award at the December 2, 2019 Senate meeting.

Dr. Sarah Jacoba, Assistant Professor in the Department of Languages, was nominated for her integration of social and digital media in her French courses. Students in her literature course on representations of the body, for instance, maintained a weekly Tumblr blog in which they examined non-normative images.

In doing so, they went beyond traditional writing assignments to become producers of online content. In her Stylistics and Composition course, according to the Department Chair, Dr. Jacoba “departed from a more traditional approach, opting instead to offer more current, real-world, technology-based equivalents of assignments.” In her French Oral Skills, students were asked to not only prepare a cover letter and CV but to create a LinkedIn page.

Particularly successful was her selfie assignment in which students used the Google Arts and Culture app, which matched their selfies with a face in a painting. They were then asked to write a creative assignment based on the match. Students particularly praise this assignment for its creativity and for generating student interest and engagement. Her students commend her for her innovation in developing relevant and engaging assignments. As one student writes, Dr. Jacoba uses “original and engaging” methods “to teach the conventional writing process and study of literature.” As another student writes, “her innovative style helped me to be a successful student.”   

Dr. Evgeny Chugunov, Assistant Professor in the Department of Music, was nominated for his development and introduction of an interactive master class into his piano instruction. As Dr. Chugunov describes, the interactive master class is “an essential addition to individual piano lessons, allowing a student to break out of the traditional isolation, interact with other music-loving students, share piano literature, and acquire a valuable set of essential professional skills.”

It helps to create a learning community, and helps students to develop their “critical thinking and understanding in a practical setting.” In addition to helping students develop their artistic abilities, the interactive master class “develops students’ pedagogical skills, which are especially important since most students will become piano teachers.”

As one student notes, the interactive master class allows students “opportunity in both the performance area and in refining our teaching skills. I love teaching, and I value the chance these masterclasses give me to further develop as an artist and teacher.” A prominent music teacher also commends Dr. Chugunov’s innovation, noting that it “opens up opportunities for students and teachers to present and discuss what interests them in the areas of piano pedagogy and technique, which results in the development of confidence in teaching and artistry.”