Another term has come to an end.......

Christmas is fast approaching and final exams are looming. Here we are again at the end of another semester of our university careers. It doesn't seem that long ago that I was sitting in my first ALES 204 class wondering what we were going to learn. It turns out we learned a great deal and had fun doing it.

When I first found out that the lab portion of ALES offered a community service learning (CSL) portion I jumped at the chance. This was an opportunity to learn about communication while helping my community. I worked with Sustain SU along with two great classmates, Kalin and Jamie. We learned how to use Facebook and Twitter to promote sustainable events on campus. My favourite event was the lecture by Annie Leonard, an environmentalist and author of "The Story of Stuff". http://www.storyofstuff.org. Her message was clear; the only way to induce change is to communicate with your community. Thanks to Dr. Jess Laccetti's class I now have the tools to communicate in a variety of ways. Dr.Wendy Doughty taught us the do's and don'ts of public speaking which was extremely entertaining and had us all on our feet practicing. MC taught us how to be professional with stories of her family in Quebec, and Dr. Laccetti taught us multiple ways of communicating online. I can now say that I am ready to put these tools to use and hopefully induce environmental change.

I am excited to begin next term volunteering with Sustain SU again so I can keep their Facebook and Twitter account up to date. I know my group projects are going to be much easier now that I know how to use google docs, and writing lab reports will be a cinch using RefWorks. It is obvious that everything I learned in ALES will benefit me in the future and for that I'm thankful.

I enjoyed reading everyone's blogs this term. Kalin taught me about nutrition and I got some yummy new recipes, http://nutrjunkie.blogspot.com/2011/12/nutrition.html#comment-form.
Jamie got me thinking about the benefits of naturopathy,
http://ales-jamie.blogspot.com/2011/09/recipe-for-ales-204-1-tsp-me-4-tbs.html#comment-form.
Kelsey taught me about the wonderful world of wiki editing,
http://dontbelast-kelsey.blogspot.com/2011/11/wonderful-world-of-wiki.html#comment-form.
Sarah taught me that even museums are utilizing social media,
http://spodorkski.blogspot.com/2011/09/hello-my-name-is-sarah-spotowski-and-i.html#comment-form.
Finally Greg reminded me of many of the great things we learned this year,
http://iamgreggins.blogspot.com/2011/12/communication-theory-in-reflection.html#comment-form.

I have attached the following Pecha Kucha presentation that Jamie, Kalin and I made for Sustain SU. We will be presenting it on the last day of class. I hope you all enjoy it.

Sustain-SU on Prezi

Thank you for watching. From Cassandra, Jamie, and Kalin.

Good luck on all your exams and I wish you a Merry Sustainable Christmas!

Sincerely,

Cassandra McKenzie

SUSTAIN SU Name Change Poster

The goal of my community service learning placement with SUSTAIN SU is to use social media to make the university community aware that the student group formerly known as ECOS is now SUSTAIN SU. With a name change comes a broader concept of sustainability, including social, economic and environmnetal issues.

I created a poster that can be used to inform everyone of the name change and changes to SUSTAIN SU.

CSL Placement

From photologue_np(2011). Retrieved October 4, 2011from Flickr:http://www.flickr.com/photos/44313045@N08/6101415124

I just finished my first hour of community service learning with SUSTAIN SU! My first activity was taking the dishes from our Reusable Dish Program to Dewey's to be washed. The dish program lends dishes to events on campus to reduce waste. I then read over the ECOS Redevelopment Proposal which lists the changes that will be made in reformatting ECOS to SUSTAIN SU. The new goal is to divide decision making between more students and in doing so provide peer-to-peer learning while providing sustainability-based services to the campus.
Next week I look forward to updating the Facebook and Twitter page, as well as planning Party with a Purpose, which is a concert powered by people riding stationary bikes on Oct 22 at 8:00 pm at Dinwoodie Lounge. Tickets will be sold online and around campus starting Oct 10. For more info go to http://www.sustainability.ualberta.ca/Events/UpcomingEvents.aspx

To see more exciting news about the CSL placements go to Kalin's blog at nutrjunkie.blogspot.com, or Jamie's at ales-jamie.blogspot.com.

Business Facebook Profile

Job hunting is becoming less hitting of the pavement and more hitting of the buttons.

My latest social media assignment is a professional Facebook page. I thought this was a great idea because many employers look at potential employees on Facebook. Making a professional page will put you miles ahead of other applicants who have pictures of themselves partying online for all to see.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.phpid=100002969678463&sk=wall

Facebook has shown that the future will be connecting with the public from your computer in the comfort of your own home. Friends and employers alike are available at the click of a button. While I normally recommend high security settings on your personal pages, you will want to keep your professional page open for potential employers to see. This will allow employers to access your page with ease.

I viewed some of my classmates blogs, so I could find their Facebook pages, and was really impressed with Kelvin Wong's. To view his blog go to http://kelvinwwong.blogspot.com/ where I'm sure you can find more ideas on how to make your Facebook page the best it can be.

Scientists/Researchers to follow on Twitter

From Jennol (2011). Retrieved September 21, 2011 from Flickr:http://flickr.com/photos/jennol/6458631381/

Hello all,

I have been learning how to use Twitter in my Social Media class ALES 204 at the UofA. I knew when I opened the account that I wanted to use it for educational purposes, I was not going to get lost in the "twittersphere" droning on about what I ate for lunch, as discussed on the video Twouble with Twitters @ www.youtube.com. I therefore had to figure out who were legitimate scientists that tweeted information I could trust. At first this seemed like a difficult task, until my lab TA, Courtney suggested searching Google scholar to see if these scientists were published. Once I found a published scientist I could view the other scientists in their fields that they followed on Twitter, and as you can imagine, my list of people to follow grew quite quickly.

I have listed my top 5 to follow. If you have any interest in wildlife or conservation, these are the an excellent start for your Twitter education.

1. @JaneGoodallCAN
This is where my love for animals and conservation all started. When I was young my parents gave me a set of her books and I was fascinated. My interest blossomed from there, and now I'm working towards a Conservation degree.

2. @OneSimpleAct
This one is close to home. It's an Albertan Conservation team that educates the public on what we can do to conserve in our everyday life's.

3. @NatureNews
This is a well respected magazine based out of London. They provide up to date science news on all types of topics. It has something for all of our scientific interests.

4. @Michael_GR
He is a respected journalist who works for the Discovery channel on Discovery Green. He is a tree hugger like me, and I find his tweets are full of environmental related links.

5. @DucksUnlimited
The best outcome from my degree would be landing a job working on habitat conservation. Ducks Unlimited are one of the leaders in Wetland Conservation.

If Twitter is not for you, but you would like to meet others studying to become Biologists please check out my classmates blog @ http://kihildeb.blogspot.com/

Thanks for your time!

Welcome

From C. McKenzie (personal collection, August 10, 2010)

Hello all!

Welcome to my blog, where you can find the latest news on environmental issues. I am a second year student in the Faculty of Agriculture, Life and Environmental Sciences, double majoring in Conservation Biology and Land Reclamation. I am excited to be at the University of Alberta, surrounded by cutting edge research and peers I can brainstorm ideas with.

I will soon be starting the community service learning portion of my social media class ALES 204, working with Sustain SU on campus. I look forward to using social media to get the word out about sustainable news and events on campus.

Previous to my university career I worked for the Discovery Wildlife Park as an animal caregiver. http://www.discoverywildlifepark.com/. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to work with Siberian tigers and Black bears. I enjoyed educating the public on bear safety and habitat conservation.

After I graduate I hope to work on reclamation or habitat conservation in Canada. With my new social media education I can use blogs and Twitter to stay in contact and up to date with other researchers and their work.

I can't wait to get the conversation started with fellow science lovers!

Cassandra McKenzie