It has been a banner year for Richard Ascough in terms of teaching awards.

First, the director of the School of Religion received the Fall 2016 Frank Knox Teaching Award from the Alma Mater Society (AMS) for RELS 321 – Greek and Roman Religions, a course he taught in the fall semester. He then received an Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA).

Now, he has received a third prize: the D2L Innovation Award in Teaching and Learning from the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.

Many studies have shown that developing innovative teaching and learning methods helps increase engagement and interaction for students. But as Dr. Ascough explains, “The challenge is always how do you get a humanities course, especially one focused on antiquity, to be interactive and problem based,” he says. “I came up with assignments that get students working at their group tables, get them interacting with each other in a smaller group, and then in some form in the larger classroom.”

One assignment had students debate which goddess is better, Cybele or Isis, after conducting research through pre-class readings and online resources. Another assignment had students recreate an initiation ritual for each of the seven grades in the cult of Mithras. Very little is known about the rituals. But that’s not the point, Dr. Ascough says.

“Who knows, one of them may have got it right!,” he says. “It’s more about the process of how the rituals form and what do rituals do. We debrief about that afterward. It’s the skill of how do you use disparate archeological and literary data to create and present a hypothesis.”

In winning the award Dr. Ascough will be attending the STLHE annual conference being held June 20-23 in Halifax along with a two-year membership. It’s an exciting prospect as he has long been involved in pedagogy, published on the subject and run workshops. He’s also sure that the opportunities will provide great experience as he takes on a new role at the university.

“Professionally I am becoming associate dean (teaching and learning) in the Faculty of Arts and Science as of July 1,” he says. “So to have affirmation about some of the innovative things I’ve tried as I am stepping into a role where I may be able to help facilitate this with others is very important.”

In nominating him for the various awards, students praised his ability to integrate lecture material, class discussions, and in-class assignments to create an engaging environment where they are able to learn from the instructor as well as each other. Other students added that they appreciated that he is always willing to make time for them.

That engagement is a key to long-lasting learning, Dr. Ascough explains.

“When students are excited about what they are doing then they are more engaged and by engaging more I think the learning is able to go more deep with them, particularly with the skills they are learning in my class: analysis of data, being able to formulate arguments and then articulating those arguments. That to me is what engaged learning does.”

On top of the recent recognition, Dr. Ascough has also received Queen’s top two university-wide teaching awards – the Alumni Award for Excellence in Teaching (2000) and the Chancellor A. Charles Baillie Teaching Award (2009). 

A leader in the public and private sectors Frank McKenna, the former premier of New Brunswick (1987-1997) and former Canadian ambassador to the United States (2005-2006), was recognized with an honorary degree from Queen’s University on Tuesday, June 6.

Dr. McKenna is currently deputy chair of TD Bank Group, chairman of Brookfield Asset Management, and is on the board of Canadian Natural Resources. He has also previously served as chairman of CanWest Global and served on the boards of Noranda, Shoppers Drug Mart, and General Motors.

He started his post-graduate studies at Queen’s University in Political Studies before attending the University of New Brunswick Law School.

A live feed of each Spring Convocation ceremony will begin approximately 15 minutes before the scheduled start of each event. For a full schedule of the ceremonies, visit the website of the Office of the University Registrar.

Queen’s recognized Lord John Alderdice with an honorary degree during Monday morning’s Spring Convocation ceremony at Grant Hall for his peace efforts in Northern Ireland and around the world.

Baron Alderdice of Knock in the City of Belfast played a significant role in the development of the Irish peace process and the negotiation of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement as leader of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland. He then stepped down as Alliance Leader and accepted an appointment as Speaker of the new Northern Ireland Assembly. He retired as Speaker and Member of the Legislative Assembly in 2004.

For many years, he served as a Consultant Psychiatrist and Senior Lecturer in Psychotherapy at Queen’s University Belfast and established the Centre for Psychotherapy in Belfast. He continues as an active member of the House of Lords, but has stepped back from front-line party politics to focus on his academic and practical involvement in situations of violent political conflict.

A live feed of each Spring Convocation ceremony will begin approximately 15 minutes before the scheduled start of each event. For a full schedule of the ceremonies, visit the website of the Office of the University Registrar.

Queen’s recognized Sir David Skegg with an honorary degree during Friday morning’s Spring Convocation ceremony at Grant hall.

An epidemiologist and public health physician based at the University of Otago in New Zealand, Sir David Skegg’s research focuses mainly on the causes and control of cancers, especially breast and cervical cancer, and the use of epidemiological methods to study benefits and risks of medicines.

As vice-chancellor of the University of Otago from 2004 to 2011, he took a strong interest in opportunities for international collaboration. He promoted discussions that led to the establishment of the Matariki Network of Universities, of which Queen’s and the University of Otago are founding members.

Spring Convocation continues next week with ceremonies being held on Monday at 10 am and 2:30 pm.

A live feed of each Spring Convocation ceremony will begin approximately 15 minutes before the scheduled start of each event. For a full schedule of the ceremonies, visit the website of the Office of the University Registrar.

It started with a bang (the big bang that is) and ended amongst the stars.

Nobel Laureate and Professor Emeritus Arthur McDonald delivered the Herzberg Memorial Public Lecture at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts on Monday, as part of the Canadian Association of Physicists Annual Congress, being hosted at Queen’s May28-June 2.

The CAP Congress is the most important physics conference in Canada. Every year, hundreds of Canadian and international physicists descend on the host university to communicate, present, exchange ideas, promote new research, and discuss the role of physics in Canada. This science-filled week also includes a public lecture with a speaker chosen for their merit, his or her impact on the physics community and dedication to inspiring the next generation of young innovators.

The lecture was named in honour of Nobel Laureate Gerhard Herzberg, a longstanding member of the CAP, in recognition of Dr. Herzberg’s known desire to increase public science engagement and appreciation of science amongst the public, and, particularly, youth.

Dr. McDonald continued this theme by appealing to the younger members of the audience with jokes, a promise that “science is fun,” and reminding everyone that they are sitting in a room full of “geeks looking for WIMPs” (weakly interacting massive particles). He also gave an overview of SNOLAB’s new neutrino experiment, SNO+, as well as the current dark matter program underway there. 

Dr. McDonald also discussed the history of the now completed SNO experiment, making sure he gave credit to the more than 270 people who made it possible. He made a point to acknowledge that more than 200 of the collaborators were students and post-docs; reinforcing that contributions from all levels are important.

For their work and discoveries on neutrinos Dr. McDonald and his group were awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics along with Takaaki Kajita of Japan.

After the completion of the SNO experiment the facility was expanded into SNOLAB with funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, a programme designed to “welcome the world to Canada”.

Dr. McDonald reiterated the importance of this initial investment and pushed home the message that “we need to be global in our outlook, in our diversity and our collaborations.”

For more information visit the CAP website.