A year defined by creativity and resilience: 2020 at a glance
Forced to rapidly shift to online learning in March due to the pandemic, U of T Mississauga rallied as a community to support one another, coming together in new and creative ways, demonstrating innovation, kindness and resilience.
Here are 10 of the many ways the UTM community stepped up to meet the challenges of 2020:
Helping the medical community
Early in the pandemic, UTM made a multi-departmental donation to frontline health-care workers in Mississauga.
Knowing hospitals were facing a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), various UTM departments pulled together, raiding their lab inventory to donate surgical masks, gloves, gowns and N95 masks to local hospitals that needed additional PPE.
Virtual fossils
Armed with 3D scanners, researchers digitized hundreds of anthropology specimens for students who were unable to access bone casts and fossils in-person. The 3D digital models imitate the physical specimens, with students able to turn them, zoom in on points of interest and note surface details.
The newly digitized collection, which can be used as a virtual textbook, will be available to augment hands-on learning when labs re-open.
Switch to Twitch
Looking to bring energy and connection to the virtual classroom, UTM anthropology professor David Samson turned to Twitch, a video game live-streaming platform that supports building communities around a shared interest.
“One thing I feel makes my in-person classes engaging is my energy, and I was afraid I’d lose that online,” says Samson, who is also a gamer. Samson, who found live streaming with students enjoyable, made tweaks to improve the Twitch experience, based on student feedback.
Building UTM in Minecraft
A small group of students has been recreating the UTM campus in the popular video game Minecraft for fellow students who miss being on campus. Members of the student-run Discord group UTM White Van have already finished a virtual replica of Deerfield Hall and are working on other campus buildings.
Team member Jonathan Ho says it may be some time before students can return to the physical campus. This project provides opportunities for virtual campus events and virtual campus tours. Students might even host a show or fireworks in the virtual environment, he adds.
Pedagogy of kindness
Throughout the pandemic, biology professor Fiona Rawle has reached out to students and fellow faculty members to foster a community built on kindness, where compassion is the cornerstone.
“Students, faculty, staff, and teaching assistants are all under more stress than usual,” says Rawle, who takes a genuinely caring approach to teaching, creating a space where it’s safe to be honest, vulnerable and open. “If ever there was a time for a pedagogy of kindness, it's now.”
Rawle designed and co-led a series of workshops to help faculty members better connect with students and provide them with the necessary support. The goal is to create “a culture of communication, flexibility, understanding and collaboration,” she says.
Choose your own adventure
Jayson Parker, MBiotech associate director and associate professor of biology, turned to his love of role-playing games to help incoming students get acquainted from a distance.
Parker built a post-apocalyptic model of Winnipeg, Manitoba on a table in his basement. With a videoconference view of the tabletop, the three-member student teams had two hours to explore the landscape by rolling dice and negotiating choose-your-own-adventure type scenarios written and narrated by Parker.
The game provided a fun and unusual team building exercise that gave incoming students a chance to get to know one another.
Sharing joy during self-isolation
Two U of T Mississauga alumni gave families the seeds to create some fun and joy inside their homes during lockdown.
Conner Tidd and Kevin Jakiela, co-founders of Just Vertical, provided parents and children with a free guide and some lettuce seeds to start growing a garden inside using household materials. Longer lesson plans were also available for those who wanted to teach something new to their children, were curious about other gardening experiments or were just looking to pass the time.
In-person labs
Faced with deciding whether to cancel in-person mandatory labs and send students home for the year or find a safe way to open, Leigh Revers found a creative and safe solution to keep his labs operating over the summer.
Revers, the director of UTM’s Master of Biotechnology, implemented strict safety protocols and reduced the number of students in the lab at any given time by splitting the lab work between team members who connected with their teammate in the lab via video conferencing. The novel approach allowed students to continue their studies safely.
Virtual convocation
In June, U of T held its first ever virtual convocation. Representing UTM was graduate and UTM valedictorian, Habon Ali, who made a rare trip outside her home before the big day to pre-record her congratulatory message to her peers.
She was one of two student ambassadors chosen to represent the Class of 2020.
“Everyone is headed in different directions. It’s sad that we won’t have a traditional send-off, but I think this will be a close second,” Ali said.
Live cooking shows
Throughout the pandemic, dietitian Kimberly Green brought students into her kitchen via social media for live cooking demonstrations. Green turned to the Health and Counselling Centre’s Wellness Instagram page to bring her interactive and entertaining demonstrations to the small screen.
Sharing her love for food and cooking, Green offered students an opportunity build both their skills and confidence in the kitchen, using recipes developed with a student budget in mind.
UTM’s Health and Counselling Centre also moved its other programming and services online.