Grant helps innner-city students learn science

More inner-city kids will get to experience life in the laboratory here at U of W thanks to a $42,000 grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. The money means 100 additional elementary school students will participate in the Eco-kids on Campus program, which brings students to campus once a week for 10 weeks to do a variety of science activities. Science professors, Faculty of Education students and instructors from the U of W Collegiate help run the activities. Strathcona School pioneered the program and this year Wellington School will also participate.

DCE sends students on a PacMan hunt

The University of Winnipeg Division of Continuing Education (DCE) has found a new way to merge marketing, technology and fun. The DCE hid a modified version of PacMan on its website last week, leaving clues on Facebook and Twitter as to how students could find it. Within 24 hours of posting the “easter egg” content, students were talking about how it could be accessed by typing in a Konami Code, a cheat code for accessing “secret” content. The game is a version of PacMan with a special University of Winnipeg twist that DCE Dean Erin Stewart believes fits well with the direction of the DCE’s Internet Systems Specialist diploma program, which teaches technologies such as PHP, Flash and ActionScript.

The game can be accessed on the DCE website (if you know the code!) at dce.UWinnipegCourses.ca.

Hockey, yoga, and meditation to beat winter blahs

Cold weather is stressful. The UWSA is offering some extra-curricular lunchtime activities to blow off some steam beginning Jan. 20 and continuing for the rest of the winter term.

During the free period on Wednesdays from 12:30 to 1:20 students have the option to take part in pick-up street hockey in the campus portion of Spence street. Students’ other Wednesday option are free yoga classes in the theatre building at 0T19. If students want to compliment their yoga classes with a relaxation period, Thursday’s free period will host meditation in the UWSA boardroom in the Bulman centre at 12:30. Beginners are welcome to attend.

Green technology research on campus

The federal and provincial governments have teamed up with technology giant Cisco to increase research into green technology on campus.

This $14 million investment in the university is called UWin CREATE (the University of Winnipeg Commercialization Research and Education Alliance for Science, Technology and the Environment).

The money will go toward building 34 cutting-edge research and teaching labs in the new Science Complex and Richardson College for the Environment which will open in spring of 2011. The research will help commercialize innovative green technologies.

What’s happening on campus this weekend?

Don’t let the winter blues get you down, the University of Winnipeg has lots for you to do this weekend.

Mulitimedia artist Evan Tapper opens installation Swoon in Gallery 1C03 on Thursday, Jan. 21. The video exhibit will explore the ancient Greek myth of Leda and the Swan, where the god Zeus encounters a mortal woman.

The Wesmen volleyball teams are playing on Friday and Saturday against Trinity Western University Spartans from Langley, B.C. Games are at 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. both days.

Don’t forget that the voluntary withdrawal date for Fall/Winter courses is Friday, Jan. 22. This is the final date to withdraw from courses without academic penalty.

Published in Volume 64, Number 16 of The Uniter (January 21, 2010)