Afraid of spiders? There's an app for that.
University of New Brunswick professor Darren Piercey has developed an app for iPad and iPhone to help people fight their fear of the creepy crawlies.
Through five levels of increasingly terrifying play to get users adjusted to spiders and make them less likely to panic.
"If at the first level there are spiders falling from the ceiling and jumping on you and stuff, it's just too much for them to take," he told the Brunswickan.
"You can do this type of therapy in an office with a clinician and a real spider, and they're not going to throw the spider on you. You have to start off thinking about spiders and learning about spiders and at some point in time you would see real spiders."
Piercey's app has been downloaded around the world. He next plans to develop similar apps for people afraid of dogs, snakes, cats and insects.
With files from Alex Kress and The Brunswickan. Read more at http://cupwire.ca/articles/44225
Women still behind in getting PhDs: StatsCan
While women make up the majority of undergraduate students, men still make up the majority of doctoral enrolments.
According to Statistics Canada, women make up 58 per cent of undergraduate enrolments and even make up 56 per cent of graduate studies enrolments. But by the time students reach the doctoral level, only 47 per cent of them are women.
"We have to recognize that there are still a lot of general and internalized stereotypes that as a society we impose, which we are slowly overcoming," University of Manitoba graduate students' association president Meaghan Labine told Canadian University Press.
"At this point I don't believe there is any intention for there to be less women in PhD programs, but rather that women as a whole are learning to see themselves in professions that only a short time ago were unobtainable."
But the discrepancy between men and women across doctoral programs is different across disciplines. Women are still underrepresented in the hard sciences and engineering.
With files from Tannara Yelland. Read more at http://cupwire.ca/articles/43895
Law student asks for judge to check his work
A Montreal law student who failed his mid-term bar exam by a mere 3 per cent is asking a Quebec judge to review his work.
Daniel Goldwater is claiming that it's unfair that he was not allowed to appeal his grade after a question that was marked wrong was, in fact, correct.
Goldwater said that he met with the head of the department who told him that, even if his answer had been an acceptable alternative, there was no procedure in place to change the mark.
In Quebec, students take two mid-term exams, each worth 15 per cent of the final, and then a final exam worth 70 per cent.
Goldwater is now asking the court to order the school to revise his mark if it accepts the answer to his question, which could allow him to pass.
The Quebec Bar Association, however, claims that allowing an individual student to revise their grades based on outside assessment is unfair to other students.
The case continues.
With files from Jacob Serebrin. Read more at http://cupwire.ca/articles/43927
NDP introduces post-secondary act in parliament
New Democrat MP Niki Ashton hopes to encourage not-for-profit public institutions to produce better student-to-faculty ratios and improve accessibility through a new private members' bill.
"The main objective is to really set a framework for federal leadership when it comes to supporting accessible, affordable, quality education for Canadians," Ashton, the party's post-secondary education critic, told Canadian University Press.
Ashton believes that student debt and up-front costs are barriers to educating the next generation.
"What we're saying is, why don't we deal with it before by investing at the front end by working with the provinces - and all the while seeing the goal of making education more affordable and more accessible for Canadians."
This is not the first time the NDP has tabled such a bill. A similar bill was presented in the fall of 2007.
With files from Emma Godmere. Read more at http://cupwire.ca/articles/44223
TA under fire after Facebook blunder
A York University teaching assistant is being investigated after she posted inflammatory comments about her students to her Facebook page.
Bianca Baggiarini posted a short rant to her Facebook page on Feb. 22 insulting the intelligence of her students. While the comments were removed on March 10, students complained to the department.
"It's definitely not professional mixing work with Facebook, because that is public," Carlos Casasola, a student in the Baggiarini's class, told Excalibur. "It's like posting on a forum."
The chair of the sociology department where the teaching assistant worked, Nancy Mandell, also expressed disappointment.
"From our point of view, we have 120 TAs, we have 2,500 majors, we have approximately 9,000 seats in sociology and we have great respect for our students," she said. "We're disappointed in this."
Baggiarini declined to comment to Excalibur, but the union that represents her, CUPE 3903, said they "fully stand behind our members and their teaching ability."
With files from Victoria Alarcon and Excalibur. Read more at http://cupwire.ca/articles/44225
UNB prof helps fight your eight-legged fear
Afraid of spiders? There's an app for that.
University of New Brunswick professor Darren Piercey has developed an app for iPad and iPhone to help people fight their fear of the creepy crawlies.
Through five levels of increasingly terrifying play to get users adjusted to spiders and make them less likely to panic.
"If at the first level there are spiders falling from the ceiling and jumping on you and stuff, it's just too much for them to take," he told the Brunswickan.
"You can do this type of therapy in an office with a clinician and a real spider, and they're not going to throw the spider on you. You have to start off thinking about spiders and learning about spiders and at some point in time you would see real spiders."
Piercey's app has been downloaded around the world. He next plans to develop similar apps for people afraid of dogs, snakes, cats and insects.
With files from Alex Kress and The Brunswickan. Read more at http://cupwire.ca/articles/44225
Women still behind in getting PhDs: StatsCan
While women make up the majority of undergraduate students, men still make up the majority of doctoral enrolments.
According to Statistics Canada, women make up 58 per cent of undergraduate enrolments and even make up 56 per cent of graduate studies enrolments. But by the time students reach the doctoral level, only 47 per cent of them are women.
"We have to recognize that there are still a lot of general and internalized stereotypes that as a society we impose, which we are slowly overcoming," University of Manitoba graduate students' association president Meaghan Labine told Canadian University Press.
"At this point I don't believe there is any intention for there to be less women in PhD programs, but rather that women as a whole are learning to see themselves in professions that only a short time ago were unobtainable."
But the discrepancy between men and women across doctoral programs is different across disciplines. Women are still underrepresented in the hard sciences and engineering.
With files from Tannara Yelland. Read more at http://cupwire.ca/articles/43895
Law student asks for judge to check his work
A Montreal law student who failed his mid-term bar exam by a mere 3 per cent is asking a Quebec judge to review his work.
Daniel Goldwater is claiming that it's unfair that he was not allowed to appeal his grade after a question that was marked wrong was, in fact, correct.
Goldwater said that he met with the head of the department who told him that, even if his answer had been an acceptable alternative, there was no procedure in place to change the mark.
In Quebec, students take two mid-term exams, each worth 15 per cent of the final, and then a final exam worth 70 per cent.
Goldwater is now asking the court to order the school to revise his mark if it accepts the answer to his question, which could allow him to pass.
The Quebec Bar Association, however, claims that allowing an individual student to revise their grades based on outside assessment is unfair to other students.
The case continues.
With files from Jacob Serebrin. Read more at http://cupwire.ca/articles/43927
NDP introduces post-secondary act in parliament
New Democrat MP Niki Ashton hopes to encourage not-for-profit public institutions to produce better student-to-faculty ratios and improve accessibility through a new private members' bill.
"The main objective is to really set a framework for federal leadership when it comes to supporting accessible, affordable, quality education for Canadians," Ashton, the party's post-secondary education critic, told Canadian University Press.
Ashton believes that student debt and up-front costs are barriers to educating the next generation.
"What we're saying is, why don't we deal with it before by investing at the front end by working with the provinces - and all the while seeing the goal of making education more affordable and more accessible for Canadians."
This is not the first time the NDP has tabled such a bill. A similar bill was presented in the fall of 2007.
With files from Emma Godmere. Read more at http://cupwire.ca/articles/44223
TA under fire after Facebook blunder
A York University teaching assistant is being investigated after she posted inflammatory comments about her students to her Facebook page.
Bianca Baggiarini posted a short rant to her Facebook page on Feb. 22 insulting the intelligence of her students. While the comments were removed on March 10, students complained to the department.
"It's definitely not professional mixing work with Facebook, because that is public," Carlos Casasola, a student in the Baggiarini's class, told Excalibur. "It's like posting on a forum."
The chair of the sociology department where the teaching assistant worked, Nancy Mandell, also expressed disappointment.
"From our point of view, we have 120 TAs, we have 2,500 majors, we have approximately 9,000 seats in sociology and we have great respect for our students," she said. "We're disappointed in this."
Baggiarini declined to comment to Excalibur, but the union that represents her, CUPE 3903, said they "fully stand behind our members and their teaching ability."
With files from Victoria Alarcon and Excalibur. Read more at http://cupwire.ca/articles/44225
