“It is important that we review and evaluate the contributions of our senior administration on a regular basis” says OAC dean Rob Gordon. “I am very pleased with the input we had from across the College as well as externally. Renée has had a positive impact at Campus d’Alfred and I am pleased to see her continue in this important role. ”

Bergeron, an expert in animal behaviour and professor in the department of animal and poultry science, was appointed director of Campus d’Alfred in 2007. The campus, located 70 km east of Ottawa, is the only French-language institution in Ontario to offer diploma and certificate programs in agri-food and related fields.

“I am very grateful for the confidence shown in me with the decision to renew my mandate with the direction of the Campus d’ Alfred,” says Bergeron. “It is with great enthusiasm that I will continue to work with my colleagues to advance the the mission of excellence of the campus and OAC.”

Part of the Ontario Agricultural College since 1997, Campus d’Alfred offers associate diploma programs in agriculture; food, nutrition and risk management; and, in partnership with Collège Boréal, veterinary technology.

Under the outreach program launched this past winter, she and other experts from on and off campus have taken a parasite management message to sheep- and goat-producing regions of rural Ontario. During daylong workshops, the team has spoken to a total of about 150 producers and veterinarians in Floradale, Napanee and New Liskeard.

“It’s really important that we work with both veterinarians and producers to educate them regarding controlling these important disease agents,” says Menzies, who co-ordinates small ruminant research and belongs to a ruminant health management group on campus.

The sessions focus on managing infection from gastrointestinal (GI) roundworms that can cause anemia, diarrhea, weight loss and even death in sheep flocks and goat herds. The goal is to help farmers stem production losses and reduce prevention and treatment costs.

The outreach sessions stress management ideas that also mesh with organic farming practices, including managing pasture contamination, monitoring for parasites and selective use of deworming remedies to prevent worms from developing resistance to treatment.

Menzies says research shows parasites on some Ontario sheep farms are resistant to dewormers. “We need to give veterinarians and producers the tools to control gastrointestinal parasites so that they do not harm the livestock and yet minimize the need to use drugs.”

Besides contributing to the province’s agricultural economy, she says, sheep and goat production is integral to the sustainability of the rural agricultural community. Traditionally, these animals provide wool, meat and milk on the farm. Although not a major livestock sector in Canada, sheep and goat farms are increasing in Ontario in number as well as in products (lamb, cheeses from goat and sheep milk, specialty fibres).

“We only need to look at the changing ethnic mix immigrating to Ontario,” says Menzies. “A lot of people are coming from countries where it’s more common to eat lamb or drink goat’s milk than to eat beef or drink cow’s milk.”

Menzies works with pathobiology professor Andrew Peregrine; PhD student Laura Falzon, Population Medicine; and Jocelyn Jansen and Anita O’Brien, small-ruminant specialists with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. Also on the team are commodity groups and industry partners. The program is funded by the Canadian Agricultural Adaptation Program run by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

The group plans to survey producers and veterinarians to see how the outreach program has improved parasite control. “Training is one thing; uptake is another,” says Menzies.

More effective control measures are especially important for sheep. Referring to that tongue-twisting mantra about diseased animals, she says: “Sheep work hard not to let you know they are sick, so it’s our job to watch them closely. Hiding how sick they are is part of their survival technique: don’t let the predators know you are weak.”

She adds: “The value of an individual animal doesn’t often merit a lot of individual treatment. More important is to keep the entire flock healthy. Can we stop the group from getting sick?”

Even goats are more vulnerable than suggested by myths of cast-iron stomachs. Yes, the creatures are intensely personable and curious, but they don’t actually eat everything in sight. Besides being picky eaters, they differ from sheep and require extra protection from parasitic diseases.

Along with three other faculty members and OVC’s staff veterinarian, Menzies belongs to U of G’s Ruminant Field Service. That practice tends cows, sheep and goats on area farms; DVM students accompany practitioners during their final-year curriculum.

The outreach program for sheep and goat producers stems from a three-year research project headed by Peregrine, Menzies and population medicine professor Andria Jones on control of GI parasites in sheep; they’ve written a parasite control handbook.

The Guelph group belongs to the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada (OACC), formed in 2001 to support organic farmers. OACC also includes other researchers at Guelph – and at U of G’s Alfred and Kemptville campuses – who study other aspects of organic production.

Chris Earley, left, and Ric Jordan hug a 200-year-old white ash in the Arboretum near Victoria Road.

This spring, about 200 ash trees on campus and in the U of G Arboretum will be “inoculated” in a bid to save them from falling to an invasive beetle that has already killed millions of trees in the northern United States and parts of southern Ontario.

The trees will receive an insecticide injection intended to protect them against the invasive emerald ash borer, which was discovered late last year in Guelph.

“It’s only a matter of time before it gets into the Arboretum,” says Chris Earley, interpretive biologist and education co-ordinator with the Arboretum.

He and other experts expect to see untreated trees dying throughout the city in two to three years. “Ashes are one of the most common trees in southern Ontario forests. When they’re gone, you’re going to notice it.”

In the Arboretum, he hopes to protect a relative handful of trees. But prohibitive treatment costs – injecting a single tree can cost between $200 and $400 – mean that most of the thousands of specimens there will remain untreated and will likely be lost, says Earley.

On the main campus, Physical Resources plans to treat about 200 trees.

The department is awaiting estimates this month from three companies, with treatment to begin in late May. The treatment – injecting insecticide into the tree – is supposed to be 95-per-cent effective.

That treatment may include Arboretum trees, says Jill Vigers, manager of architectural services in Physical Resources and chair of U of G’s landscape advisory committee. “The landscape advisory committee will prioritize the best way to spend the funds we have been allotted in order to preserve the best trees on campus and protect the important aspects of the campus landscape.”

She says dead or weakened trees can pose a safety risk.

Vigers says trees need to receive the preventive treatment this month, allowing no time for licensing U of G grounds staff specially to carry out this treatment. Treatment would also require extra time for Physical Resources staffers during a busy spring.

Separately, the U of G Arboretum has contracted a company to treat 19 larger or more prominent specimens this spring for a total of about $4,700. Next year, another 10 trees will be treated there.

Without funding for additional treatment – both the initial application and requisite follow-up injections every two years – Earley says most of the Arboretum’s ash trees will succumb to the insect.

Most ash varieties lack natural resistance to the insect, although blue ash – threatened in Ontario and present in the Arboretum’s collections – appears less susceptible. Another rare variety in those collections is the pumpkin ash. White and black ash trees grow naturally in the Arboretum’s wooded areas.

“It’s one of the most prominent trees in our old-growth forest,” he says.

Mountain ash is not a true ash and is unaffected by the emerald ash borer.

On the main campus, one ash towers above the Bullring. Several older trees ring the back of the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre; two more large specimens stand on Gordon Street near Alexander Hall.

Younger ash trees are planted in front of the Ontario Veterinary College, along the West Ring Road west of OVC and along the west side of the arena. Others adorn campus parking lots and form a small grove between the Food Science and the Animal Science and Nutrition buildings.

Says Arboretum manager Ric Jordan: “It represents such a large part of our urban forest as well as our native forest. Probably in most cities it’s the highest percentage of most trees planted.”

In 2010, Wellington County was declared a regulated area for emerald ash borer by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). Ash trees and firewood may not be moved out of a regulated area. The CFIA confirmed last fall’s sighting in south Guelph.

Introduced accidentally from China, the metallic-green insect began killing ash trees in 2002 in Michigan and Windsor, Ont.

The insect burrows into trees to lay its eggs. The larva feeds on the tree, ultimately plugging its connective tissues and preventing water and nutrients from circulating. Trees normally die within three years of infestation.

Adults emerge after chewing D-shaped exit holes in the bark.

Woodpeckers and some wasps feed on the insect. But injection is the most effective treatment.

U of G researchers have helped develop both treatment and monitoring strategies.

In the School of Environmental Sciences, Prof. Gard Otis and former grad students did early work on the systemic insecticide now registered for treating trees. SES professor Steve Marshall worked with students on wasps that prey on the emerald ash borer and are used to monitor trees for the borer’s presence.

Marshall’s lab has just completed a field guide to the beetle family that includes the emerald ash borer.

Note: Ric Jordan will discuss the emerald ash borer and its potential impact on Guelph’s ash trees at 7 p.m. tonight on Rogers Cable TV’s Talk Local.

Lisa Wenger

Gender matters in how men seek and receive help after a cancer diagnosis, says recent PhD graduate Lisa Wenger, Department of Family Relations and Human Development. She has been investigating how men diagnosed with cancer obtain the support they require to help them handle the challenges of their illness.

Research on men’s medical help-seeking behaviour has often been limited to the factors that influence whether or not men decide to go to the doctor when they think they have a medical problem. Wenger’s research focus, however, is on how men perceive and manage their health needs from the moment they are diagnosed through the course of a critical illness.

“Cancer can be a scary diagnosis and we know it can have a huge emotional impact as well as physical,” she says. “Some men still aren’t receiving the support they need; relative to women, not as many men use the cancer support systems that currently exist.”

Health professionals are interested in learning how to better engage male patients, says Wenger, who has worked in the public health sector and with a cancer research group.

“Cancer support services can’t be gender blind because what works for a group of women with cancer won’t necessarily work for a group of men with cancer. We need to better understand the ways in which gender scripts inform how men make sense of what’s happening to them and guide their determination of what are acceptable responses to the impacts of their illness.”

Although most men readily accept the need for medical assistance after a diagnosis, they might not consider joining cancer support groups. When it comes to their emotional needs during their illness, men can be left to wrestle silently with worries that they may become a burden to their family, Wenger says. “For those men who don’t attend formal support group meetings, who don’t have close friends with whom they can talk about the impacts of their illness, and who don’t want to lean too heavily on their family, living with cancer can be an extremely lonely experience.”

Wenger worked with Wellspring Cancer Support Network and HopeSpring Cancer Centre to recruit 30 men ranging in age from 30 to 80 who had some form of cancer.

In each interview, she invited the participants to discuss their needs, where they sought help, what kinds of support they used and what, from their own perspectives, was lacking in terms of accessing the support they needed throughout their experience with cancer.

Her findings show that a cancer diagnosis can come as a major shock and men frequently experience the destabilization of their self-image.

“Their first thought may be ‘I’m going to die,’ and their present and future assumptions about their bodies and their life as a whole may be called into question. Men are socialized to see value in a strong and active body, to find purpose and meaning in what they can do for their family and society. When disease erodes these capacities it can level a major blow to their sense of self-worth.”

The men who participated in Wenger’s study shared personal stories of how their illness could leave them feeling dependent, less vital, exposed, uncertain and isolated. For many, this disclosure was motivated by a desire to help others avoid the issues they had encountered.

“It’s amazing how candid they were,” she says. “And in the course of these conversations, consistent underlying patterns emerged. For example, many of the men immediately adopted an ‘I’m going to fix this now’ attitude, taking on the role of leader and shouldering responsibility for their illness. The image of a warrior, a pilot or a quarterback working with a team resonated with them.”

Wenger learned that as these men faced cancer, many quickly took action to care for their bodies through dietary changes and exercise, and to gather information about their cancer, exploring what impacts they might face in the future and how to handle them. They often solicited or accepted help from health providers, peers with cancer, family members and friends.

Wenger calls this “help seeking with a strong back,” a reference to a metaphor used by Joan Halifax, a Buddhist and anthropologist. The strong back, Wenger explains, provides a “foundation” or a sense of composure during times of disorientation.

The “strong back” approach involves holding onto a familiar way of living, maintaining a sense of normalcy by staying focused on their regular routines, continuing to contribute, whether at work or at home, and keeping some distance from difficult emotions. A man may shrug his anxiety off and tell himself, “It is what it is.”

Living with cancer is often referred to as a valiant battle, but this messaging often makes it difficult to deal with the “new normal” that cancer can create. In fact, even when the cancer has been treated successfully and the patient’s body has recovered, many people cannot return to the life they once knew. They have been altered by the experience, both physically and psychologically.

“Even though a man is declared cancer free, he might not feel the same as he did before his disease,” says Wenger. “The recovering male patient may have been forced to face his mortality. He may be dealing with the loss of certain physical functions, with exhaustion, and with ongoing physical or emotional pain. He might not be able to go back to work or do his usual chores around the home.

“All of this can oblige him to reconsider his definition of what makes a ‘good’ male partner, employee, father and friend. There can be a need to re-evaluate his life and adjust his sense of self in order to move forward. He is likely to need reinforcement from others, recognition that he is still valuable to them, but in order to gain such acceptance he will need to talk about these shifts with others.”

The “help seeking with a soft front” approach benefits this work, says Wenger, referencing Halifax’s description of “soft fronts” that allow people to engage with or be “touched” by personal vulnerability during difficult times.

“Evident among the men who opened up about their pain and struggles, ‘help seeking with a soft front’ involves asking others to hear their struggles, connecting with peers who share the experience of cancer, and seeking guidance from other cancer patients and therapists around the ‘big questions’ cancer can bring into one’s life, including how to rebuild a self altered by illness.

“For men socialized to be independent and emotionally reserved, this process can feel abnormal, uncomfortable and be perceived as a ‘feminine’ way of handling struggles,” says Wenger. This predicament is compounded when health professionals or loved ones expect the men to handle their struggles on their own, to be “tough,” “buck up” or simply “get better” after treatment has ended.

Both help seeking with a strong back and with a soft front are valuable, Wenger explains. There is value in working with others to resist the disruption of illness while also recognizing how some parts of the self have been altered by the experience. But while strong backs are more easily engaged by men, soft fronts are often less comfortable for men in western society.

In her postdoctoral work, Wenger aims to develop a team comprising men with cancer, support staff, medical practitioners and others to explore how her research on a combined “strong back” and “soft front” approach can be incorporated into intervention programs for men.

“We need to be more sensitive to how men are experiencing illness and how social pressures can facilitate and inhibit certain types of help seeking. I believe we can and must create supportive environments where men are enabled to engage both strong backs and soft fronts.”

Venus, seen as a black dot, passes in front of the sun. Photo courtesy Bob Brooks

Sure, you can see the sunset from the U of G observatory atop the MacNaughton Building. But next month, you can also watch Venus make a rare pass directly in front of that setting sun.

The so-called transit of Venus will be the highlight of a “planet-gazing” evening at the MacNaughton observatory June 5, to be led by physics emeritus professor Bob Brooks. He will also discuss the scientific and historical importance of the rare event as part of Alumni Weekend in mid-June.

As the second-closest planet to the sun, Venus travels at an angled orbit that normally crosses above or below the sun from our perspective. Roughly once a century, the planet passes directly between the Earth and the sun.

Each transit is actually a pair of transits eight years apart. The last one occurred in 2004, when Brooks also hosted a morning planet-gazing event.

Before that, the previous Venus-sun tango happened in 1874 and 1882. Anyone looking for the next pair of transits will have to wait until 2117 and 2125.

In a full or partial solar eclipse, the moon passes between the sun and the Earth, causing the sky to darken during the transit. Although Venus dwarfs the moon, it is much more distant. So its six-hour crossing will cause no noticeable darkening on Earth, says Brooks.

The six-hour transit will begin just after 6 p.m. (Viewers in Hawaii will get the best view.)

Eight years ago, Brooks captured images of the transit on a hazy morning from atop MacNaughton. What did it look like? “Imagine if the sun were a basketball. Venus would be a marble against it,” he says.

For him, part of the event’s appeal lies in its historical and scientific importance.

As far back as the 17^th century, Johannes Kepler had realized that the transit could be predicted. Early astronomers – including James Horrocks and Edmund Halley (of Halley’s Comet fame) – either saw the transit in the 1600s or predicted that it could be used to measure the size of the solar system.

Later astronomers tried to use the event to gauge the distance from Earth to Venus by timing the transit from two widely separated points. From that information, they hoped to infer the size of the entire known solar system. “They were reasonably successful using the transits of 1761 and 1769,” says Brooks.

By the late 1800s, astronomers had used Mars as a measuring stick to estimate distances between the sun and the planets. “That gave us a good idea of the size of the solar system by the time the next transit of Venus came around.”

Still, he finds this summer’s event something to marvel at. “To be able to see the disc of a planet against the disc of the sun and know that we can predict it within seconds is amazing. To lose our sense of wonder about something like that would be sad.”

Named for the Roman goddess of love and beauty, Venus is the brightest object in the night sky next to the moon. Earlier this year, it drew Earth-bound eyeballs because of its alignment with Jupiter and the moon.

The MacNaughton observatory can accommodate about 40 visitors. Brooks hopes to use a webcam to capture the transit June 5. (He reminds viewers never to look directly at the sun without special filters.)

Elena Contador

When the Fish Pathology Laboratory receives specimens from fish farms or zoos, determining the cause of death often requires some detective work. Elena Contador, a master’s student in the Department of Pathobiology, is studying a fish disease that has been misunderstood for several decades.

When a new disease was discovered in lake trout in the 1920s, researchers believed it was caused by a Chlamydia-like organism because the lesions were so similar. But they didn’t have the technology to identify the pathogen. The advent of electron microscopy allowed researchers to characterize the pathogen by comparing it to similar bacteria. “Depending on the structure, you can see this looks like a Chlamydia-like organism,” says Contador.

But just because bacteria look alike doesn’t mean they’re the same. “After a lot of tests, I ruled out Chlamydia in the case of this fish,” says Contador, who is studying epitheliocystis, a disease that affects lake trout in Blue Jay Creek on Manitoulin Island. “The disease could also be related to viruses and parasites. We don’t know much about the pathogenesis because the agent hasn’t been cultured in vitro yet.”

Using molecular testing, she identified the bacteria as a member of the burkholderiales order and compared its DNA sequence to a bacterial DNA database. “The DNA that I found using this test in the fish from Blue Jay Creek is really similar to bacteria that was found recently in Europe in fish with epitheliocystis.”

Epitheliocystis causes Chlamydia-like lesions in fish. The disease affects epithelial cells found in the gills, causing lesions and cysts that affect the fish’s ability to breathe. If the fish is experiencing other forms of stress, the disease can be fatal. Some species of burkholderiales have been found in people with compromised immune systems. “When you have a chronic disease and your immune system is busy trying to fight it, these bacteria could take advantage of the situation,” says Contador. “Your system isn’t prepared to fight the disease.”

Burkholderiales bacteria can live in the environment or inside cells. “They usually live in symbiosis with animals that are not vertebrates,” she adds. “They can live inside of amoebas, which prepares them for life inside of a cell.” She believes that when the fish are under stress, the bacteria launch their attack. As with humans, fish are more likely to get sick when they’re stressed, and epitheliocystis in Blue Jay Creek lake trout often strikes in winter when the fish are coping with harsh environmental conditions.

The disease runs its course within five weeks of infection, and the peak mortality rate occurs at around three weeks. “The fish stop dying and they recover,” says Contador. “That probably happens because of the rise in temperature” as the water begins to warm up towards the end of winter. The disease has also been identified in 50 species of freshwater and saltwater fish; it can infect wild and farmed fish. Although the symptoms are similar in each species, the disease may not be caused by the same pathogen, she adds.

It’s unlikely that infected fish would end up in grocery stores or restaurants because fish farmers are not allowed to sell diseased fish, says Contador. Since epitheliocystis also affects the fish’s ability to feed, the fish eats less and doesn’t grow as much, making it unfit to sell.

Contador received her DVM from Universidad Católica de Temuco in Chile and came to U of G with her husband in 2008. She worked as a research assistant while her husband did a master’s degree in fish and nutrition. When he received a scholarship, he decided to pursue a PhD and she began a master’s degree.

What made her focus on bacteria? “I think they are interesting because they are everywhere,” she says. “Sometimes they can be your friend; sometimes they can’t. Why and when they can’t be your friend is what I like to study.”

Catherine Ollerhead De Santis

One hundred years after that ship’s fateful journey, a group of Titanic aficionados (and those just a little curious about Edwardian life) had a chance to experience what it would be like to live and dine in 1912, thanks to a U of G master’s student.

The Chatham-Kent Museum in southwestern Ontario has in its collection one of the dinner menu cards from a third-class passenger on the doomed Titanic. With the 100^th anniversary of the ship’s sinking last month, the museum decided to use the menu card as the inspiration for a special event and fundraiser.

On April 14, about 300 guests enjoyed a seven-course menu (based on the Titanic’s last dinner offered to first-class passengers, which was actually 12 courses) or a four-course meal (based on the Titanic’s third-class menu). They were invited to dress in period costume.

Why is there such fascination with the Titanic?

The event’s guest speaker, Catherine (Caitrin) Ollerhead De Santis, who is both a master’s student in history and a clinical support staff member at the OVC Health Sciences Centre, says: “I think it’s because the Titanic was a microcosm for all that was going on at the time. British society then was based on a rigid class system, and on the ship you had the very rich living in luxury with all their toys, then it went all the way down to the people in steerage, who saw the Titanic as their way to escape that class system and start new lives.”

Of course, she adds: “It wouldn’t mean so much if the ship hadn’t foundered on its maiden voyage. People always have a morbid fascination with tragedy.” Perhaps the contrast between the opulence of the ship and its ultimate resting place at the bottom of the ocean fascinates people.

On the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, the Cannon was painted like the doomed vessel.

Ollerhead De Santis gave her presentation dressed in period clothing that evening – clothing she’d made herself, right down to the corset. (A corset can be quite comfortable, she claims, providing it is properly fitted.)  She had been invited to speak to the group, who paid $100 for the first-class meal or $60 for the third-class version and the chance to listen to her.

“My talk was not about the number of rivets in the Titanic,” she says. “I focused on social protocols, what it was like to dress for dinner and how the Edwardians navigated their social circles. How did they actually manage to eat a 12-course meal? What kind of music did the people like to listen to?”

If we were magically transported back to the Titanic’s first-class dining room, she suggests, most of us wouldn’t do well. We wouldn’t know, for example, that before introducing a woman to a man, you must first ask the woman privately if she wants to be introduced to him. Most of us also wouldn’t know which knife to use with which food, or which topics could be safely discussed in the presence of women (no comments on politics or religion, and certainly no mention of what you do for a living).

Ollerhead De Santis, fortunately, was able to share this etiquette information with the guests at the Chatham-Kent event, giving them a vivid sense of life in 1912. She adds that while the class structure was very restrictive, for many it provided a sense of security: “If you were a woman, you knew doors would be opened for you. If you were a man, you knew what your role in society was going to be.” Not long after the Titanic sunk, much of that changed. World War One challenged the class system, women got the vote and trade unions helped establish rights for working-class people.

Guests wore period costumes during a lecture about the Titanic.

“But the Titanic still gives us a window into that time and that way of life,” says Ollerhead De Santis, who is an enthusiastic participant in many types of historical re-enactments. For example, she rides side-saddle wearing authentic clothing she made, on rescue horses she helped to train. A few years ago, she earned a certificate from Parks Canada that allows her to fire cannons at historical sites.

The first-class guests ate:

1^st course: consomme Olga and cream of barley soup

2^nd course: poached salmon with mousseline sauce

3^rd course: chicken Lyonnaise and vegetable marrow farci

4^th course: punch romaine

5^th course: roasted squab on wilted cress

6^th course: asparagus salad with champagne-saffron vinaigrette

7^th course: peaches in chartreuse

Third-class guests enjoyed:

1^st course: rice soup

2^nd course: fruit

3^rd course: roast beef, gravy, red jacket potatoes, seasonal vegetables and rolls

4^th course: peaches in chartreuse

But after all the etiquette lessons and the elaborate feast, Ollerhead De Santis reminded her audience that, in the end, this was a tragedy. “About 62 per cent of those travelling in steerage died and about 25 per cent of those in first class,” she says. In honour of those who lost their lives that day, she concluded her presentation with the poem “A Sailor’s Prayer” that included the line “Protect me in the dangers and perils of the sea and even in the storm grant that there may be peace and calm within my heart.”

Joe Barth

Students hate writing exams and professors hate marking them, so why do universities still use exams to evaluate students?

“I like examinations,” says Prof. Joe Barth, School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. He gave a talk called “The Case for a Return to Prevalence of Examinations in Student Evaluation” during the Teaching and Learning Innovations Conference on campus May 1.

When Barth was a U of G student in the early 1970s, he was required to write midterms and final exams that covered the entire course. Today, however, a growing number of undergraduate courses are eliminating final exams. At Harvard, for example, only about one-quarter of undergraduate courses and two per cent of graduate courses have finals.

One of the biggest reasons why exams get a failing grade is the stress they cause students and professors alike. But Barth says experiencing “time and performance stress” prepares students for the real world, where they will be required to face deadlines and performance tests on the job. “We’re actually preparing them for life,” he says. Doctors, lawyers and accountants must pass final exams before receiving their professional designations, he adds, and these types of comprehensive exams cover several years of study.

When deciding whether to take a course, students often ask the professor whether there will be a final exam. They’re more likely to take a course without a final because they think it will be easier. According to a study by Cornell University, students taking courses without finals spend more time watching TV instead of doing coursework or studying.

Research also shows that failure rates are one-third lower in courses that are entirely assignment-based with no final exam. “I think it’s easier to pass with assignments,” says Barth. To pass an exam, “you need to really internalize the material and really understand it in order to write answers. With an assignment, there’s any number of ways of skimming along.” Since exams are written in a controlled environment, he adds, cheating is less prevalent, whereas take-home exams and group assignments allow students to share their answers.

Studying for exams also enhances learning and retention. “Repetition is the mother of learning,” says Barth, recalling the Latin phrase he learned – and repeated – in high school. It’s easier to learn a poem, for example, by writing it out several times than by reading it: “If you do something more than once and there’s a time interval in between, you learn better.”

Exams also force students to study harder, especially if the exams are worth a significant percentage of their final grade. Exams worth more than 50 per cent encourage more learning than those worth 20 or 30 per cent, says Barth. “Knowing that there’s going to be a cumulative final actually does change the way people study, and it changes the way they study for the better.”

Evaluating students on an individual basis is easier with exams than with group projects in which some students do more work than others yet all get the same grade. “Peer evaluation is a flawed technique. At the end of the day, it’s not a good way of turning a group work mark into an individual score.”

Exam validity depends on a combination of three factors: what is taught in class, the course materials (such as texts and readings) and the examination questions. Gaps between any of these factors reduce the validity of the exam as an evaluation tool. “Valid exams mean students are happier with the exam. They’re much happier because what they studied in the book fits with what the prof says at the front of the room, which fits with the questions that are going to be asked.”

What makes a good exam? It should cover the course material evenly to encourage students to study everything. “It’s really disconcerting when you study a lot of material,” says Barth, “and you find out half of it’s not on the exam or the half that you studied isn’t on the exam, which means you failed the exam despite having studied a lot.”

He says instructors should design exams so that all students can answer at least 50 per cent of the questions correctly – if they studied – and 75 per cent of the students should finish the exam in 75 per cent of the time allotted.

Prof. Jia Yang Li,

Jia Yang Li, vice-minister of agriculture in China and president of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) was at the University of Guelph May 4, beginning a fourth year of a China – U of G partnership.

The partnership program between the two institutions reflects common research interests in plant and animal sciences. CAAS consists of 39 institutes and a graduate school.

Delegates from the Chinese academy have begun a three-month stay at U of G to learn English, experience Canadian culture and develop research collaborations. Working with the University’s ESL instructors, the visitors will speak, listen, read and write in an academic context. They will meet with U of G faculty in similar research fields and tour local attractions.

Ashlee Cunsolo Willox

When we were hit with an unexpected heat wave this past March, most of us were celebrating the pleasures of being able to walk outside without a jacket and enjoy the sunshine. But for the 300 or so residents of Rigolet, Canada’s most southerly Inuit community, that warmer weather and longer-term changes in climate may be contributing to mental health difficulties.

That’s according to Ashlee Cunsolo Willox, a recent PhD graduate, who has been studying the connections between climate change and mental health problems among the Inuit who live in Rigolet and other isolated communities in Labrador.

Through a multi-year community-based project led by the Rigolet Inuit Community Government, she worked with PhD student Sherilee Harper, adjunct professor Victoria Edge, Population Medicine, and a team of Inuit researchers, using digital media to explore the issues of climate change and health. Cunsolo Willox’s particular area of focus was the relationship between climate change and mental and emotional health.

“Climate change is a major concern in the region,” says Cunsolo Willox. “Records indicate that temperatures have been six to 11 degrees warmer in recent winters than in the past.” Because this community relies so closely on the natural environment for livelihoods and sustenance, even small changes can have huge repercussions.

Charlotte Wolfrey, the AngajukKâk (mayor) of the town, says those recent warmer winters are only part of what seems to be a longer-term trend. “Over a number of years, we’re seeing less ice and less snow. Winter starts later and ends earlier.” That might not seem like a bad thing to some, but for this Inuit community, it’s a big problem. The town of Rigolet is not accessible by road. People can fly in all year round or take a ferry in the summer, but the residents have long relied on snowmobiles and dogsleds to get out during the winter to hunt, trap, ice fish and visit family and friends in neighbouring communities. Without the snow and ice, they are stuck in town.

“There have always been areas of unsafe ice, but we knew what areas would be safe and when. That was traditional knowledge that was handed down from generation to generation,” says Wolfrey. “Now you can’t trust all that knowledge. The section of ice that used to be safe to cross in November isn’t safe in November now.”

The inability to carry out their traditional hunting and fishing pursuits and travel to family cabins affects the residents economically, but also emotionally. “We’re really people who want to be out on the land,” says Wolfrey. “It’s part of us and the way we grow up. We get away from the hustle and bustle of being in town, and we connect with nature and beauty and we feel at peace. Being on the land gives us a connection with where we’ve come from and who we are.”

To study the effects of climate change on health and wellbeing, Cunsolo Willox and her colleagues set up the My Word: Storytelling and Digital Media Lab and invited the Rigolet residents to share their stories about changes in the land, weather, animals and plants. They also talked with focus groups, administered two surveys and conducted more than 80 in-depth interviews with community members. The information was often quite surprising and emotionally-charged, particularly around the mental health issues.

Many of the people in Rigolet, Cunsolo Willox says, “talked about the land almost as a member of their families. The changes they are seeing feel like they are happening to their kin, to a relative, to a loved one.” Others described how being out in nature helped them to recharge and refresh; when they weren’t able to go out, they felt like they were missing an important part of their health and wellbeing.

As a result, Cunsolo Willox heard many descriptions of concerns such as increased family stress, lack of patience, reports of increased drug and alcohol use, and greater mental health tensions. Participants and mental health counsellors who worked with people in the community also reported that more people were identifying that climate change was an additional and very serious mental health stressor, and combined with many other complex factors, was leading to more talk about suicide among some participants. “It is important to emphasize that we’re not saying that climate change causes suicide,” cautions Cunsolo Willox. “But people in our study did link climate change as another self-reported causal factor.”

Others who were interviewed said that the effects of climate change amplified previous traumas. “Those who had been forced to relocate or been taken to live in residential schools told us that going out on the land and following traditional ways was a strategy that helped them cope with the traumas they’d experienced,” says Cunsolo Willox. “Now that the environment was changing so dramatically, and their previous coping strategies were no longer available, all the old pain flooded back even more strongly.” In addition, watching the land change around the community also led to deep feelings of pain and disorientation as familiar landscapes changed.

That was the information that surprised Cunsolo Willox the most. “There is a huge increase in the need for mental health supports for the Inuit affected by climate change, and the few counsellors working in these communities are overworked and becoming burned out. More resources and support are urgently needed.” While this is an exploratory study, it is the first of its kind conducted within an Inuit context and one of the first such studies globally. As a result, it provides a baseline study for understanding the potential mental health impacts of climate change in Canada and abroad.

Wolfrey appreciates Cunsolo Willox’s efforts to understand the issues, saying: “We taught her about our culture and what it means to us to be out on the land. We’ve been her sounding-board. Now we are hoping to get some strategies for adaptation.”

“The hope lies in how adaptable and strong the Inuit people are,” adds Cunsolo Willox. “But these issues need more attention and resources.”

Digital stories: Ashlee Cunsolo Willox shares digital stories created as part of Changing Climate, Changing Health, Changing Stories, a community-driven storytelling project led by the Rigolet Inuit Community Government:

Have we waited too long?

My Dad taught me well