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Archives for January 2018

Peer Tutor Tuesdays with Emma Larson

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Name:        Emma Larson
Program:   Business Management

What attracted you to becoming a Peer Tutor?
I started tutoring in high school and wanted to be involved at BCIT. Also, tutoring gives me a sense of fulfillment because I love helping others.

How has tutoring helped you?
It improves my own time management skills and also challenges me to convey my thoughts and communicate well.

If you could give one piece of advice to a BCIT student what would it be?
To make good time management skills and habits a top priority even over grades because, if you can manage your time well, the rest will follow.

What would your dream job be when you leave BCIT?
My dream job would be to work in something to do with human rights.

If you had a free day, how would you spend it?
I am a big bookworm! I would read and also do yoga.

Friday Favorites – Rise of the Rocket Girls by Nathalia Holt

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The Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women who Propelled us, From Missiles to the Moon to Mars

By Nathalia Holt

There’s a total lunar eclipse, known as super blue blood moon happening on January 31st!

Why not get in the mood for the eclipse by learning about the Rocket Girls – a group of women who worked on NASA’s first probes to the moon. Nathalia Holt’s book, The Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women who Propelled us, From Missiles to the Moon to Mars, reminds of the integral role that this group of women (also known as ‘the human computers’) played in the advancement of space exploration.

 

ASME Digital Collection

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BCIT Library now has access to the ASME Digital Collection.

From The American Society of Mechanical Engineers this collection houses the most current and relevant content in mechanical engineering and related engineering fields, such as medical device research, energy resources, and nuclear engineering. It includes 28 journals, 185 eBooks and hundreds of conference proceedings.

Basic keyword and advanced searching is available, as well as over 30 Topic Collections ​curated by ASME, including subjects such as Aerospace Industry, Biomedical Engineering, Boiler & Pressure Vessels, Careers, Computer Aided Design, Environmental Engineering, Robotics and Mechatronics and Transportation. Check them out!!

Students, faculty and staff can access this collection directly at https://ezw.lib.bcit.ca/login?url=http://www.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org
* note you will be required to login with your A# and password if you are off campus.

Peer Tutor Tuesdays with Dallas Jeffs

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Name:        Dallas Jeffs
Program:   Technical Writing

What attracted you to becoming a Peer Tutor?
I thought peer tutoring would be a great way to get more involved with the BCIT community (since I’m a part-time student I’m only on campus once a week for class.) Plus, tutoring fellow students in writing is a really effective way to reinforce the lessons I’m learning in my own head and get extra practice utilizing all sorts of writing techniques.

How has tutoring helped you?
I’m pretty new to BCIT so I didn’t know about tutoring before becoming a tutor myself. However, working as a tutor has already taught me a lot about English grammar rules and conventions. Grammar has always come naturally to me, which is both a blessing and a curse because I’ve never had to learn the actual rules, and what different types of words are called. Now I’m already getting much better at explaining proper grammar and sentence structure to my peers, and spotting different grammar conventions in my own work.

If you could give one piece of advice to a BCIT student what would it be?
Don’t worry too much about being really good at something right away, or getting your assignment perfect the first time. You’re here to learn, so try to focus on improvement rather than perfection.

What would your dream job be when you leave BCIT?
Right now I work as a freelance writer, and I decided to take the Technical Writing program so I’d have more skills and a certificate to prove it. Basically I’d like to continue doing exactly what I’m doing, but get paid more to do it!

If you had a free day, how would you spend it?
I’d like to work on my own creative writing projects — I always want to enter short fiction contests but I find I never have the time to write a good creative piece. I’d also do something active like going for a hike, or bouldering like in my photo.

Peer Tutor Tuesdays with Lisa Go

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Name:        Lisa Go
Program:   Nursing

What attracted you to becoming a Peer Tutor?
I learned a lot of study skills during my first degree from friends and professors, and wanted to share my knowledge and techniques with others.

How has tutoring helped you?
Tutoring has given me an opportunity to help my peers, and get to know them better. I also find that studying and helping others learn helps solidify my own knowledge, especially when the tutee comes up with challenging questions.

If you could give one piece of advice to a BCIT student what would it be?
Learn through understanding, not memorizing. If you understand all the content you won’t need to memorize it and the knowledge will stick with you longer. It will also help you critically think through practices questions and exams, and makes your knowledge more applicable.

What would your dream job be when you leave BCIT?
I would love to be an RN at RCH.

If you had a free day, how would you spend it?
I would go for a hike with my dog and some friends and end the day with dessert like matcha shaved ice at Mr. Frosty.

BCIT Archives – Office of the President series

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My name is Chloe Perrin, and in the fall of 2017 I helped out in the BCIT Archives as an Archival Professional Experience student from the Master of Archival Studies program at UBC. I worked with records transferred from the Office of the President to the BCIT Archives. Transfers of records to the BCIT Archives from BCIT Departments are scheduled in BCIT’s Directory of Records; vital or important records with a disposition of ‘Ar,’ Archival Retention are transferred to the BCIT Archives for permanent preservation. My task was to appraise the current holdings, arrange them appropriately, and provide archival descriptions in the BCIT Archives‘ AtoM database.

Banker's boxes on shelves.

The daunting task I was faced with; twenty-four boxes. [Photograph by Chloe Perrin]

Records from the Office of the President date back to the mid-70’s on a wide array of topics. It’s overwhelming the number of areas that BCIT Presidents’ deal with. There’s information on everything from mundane meeting minutes to the implementation of new degree programs. Did you know that the ‘smart’ student card was issued 20 years ago?

Prior to my arrival only a small portion of the Office of the President series had been processed by the Archivist. Twenty-four bankers boxes of records from the President’s Office were transferred to the BCIT Archives and accessioned but were waiting to be rehoused, arranged and described in the database. The archival theory I studied at UBC prepared me well for the challenge.

Banker's box of original file folders.

My job was to turn boxes of files… [Photograph by Chloe Perrin]

Properal archival storage, neat labels, acid-free folders.

Into neatly labeled files in acid-free folders…at the same time creating hierarchical descriptions now incorporated in BCIT Archives’ database. [Photograph by Chloe Perrin]

If you are interested in learning more about these records, they can be found as part of the BCIT Archives database collections in the Office of the President series.

Peer Tutor Tuesdays with Timothy Cheng

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Name:        Timothy Cheng
Program:   Bachelor of Accounting

What attracted you to becoming a Peer Tutor?
The ability to pay back to the BCIT community and be there for advice that I wish I had.

How has tutoring helped you?
I have met many great individuals and everyone has been very supportive in my academic and career success.

If you could give one piece of advice to a BCIT student what would it be?
Do not be afraid or ashamed of not understanding something and asking a question.

What would your dream job be when you leave BCIT?
Junior accounting staff.

If you had a free day, how would you spend it?
Eat, sleep, and repeat.