Senate Chamber

Senate Chambers in A Block of the MacKenzie Chown Complex.

13th Floor

The Alumni or former Faculty and Staff Lounge on the 13th floor of the Schmon Tower.

Shop-floor narratives : how six workers and a researcher describe learning activities

I am a part-time graduate student who works in industry. This study is my narrative about how six workers and I describe shop-floor learning activities, that is learning activities that occur where work is done, outside a classroom. Because this study is narrative inquiry, you wilileam about me, the narrator, more than you would in a more conventional study. This is a common approach in narrative inquiry and it is important because my intentions shape the way that I tell these six workers' stories. I developed a typology of learning activities by synthesizing various theoretical frameworks. This typology categorizes shop-floor learning activities into five types: onthe- job training, participative learning, educational advertising, incidental learning, and self-directed learning. Although learning can occur in each of these activities in isolation, it is often comprised of a mixture of these activities. The literature review contains a number of cases that have been developed from situations described in the literature. These cases are here to make the similarities and differences between the types of learning activities that they represent more understandable to the reader and to ground the typology in practice as well as in theory. The findings are presented as reader's theatre, a dramatic presentation of these workers' narratives. The workers tell us that learning involves "being shown," and if this is not done properly they "learn the hard way." I found that many of their best case lean1ing activities involved on-the-job training, participative learning, incidentalleaming, and self-directed learning. Worst case examples were typically lacking in properly designed and delivered participative learning activities and to a lesser degree lacking carefully planned and delivered on-the-job training activities. Included are two reflective chapters that describe two cases: Learning "Engels" (English), and Learning to Write. In these chapters you will read about how I came to see that my own shop-floor learning-learning to write this thesis-could be enhanced through participative learning activities. I came to see my thesis supervisor as not only my instructor who directed and judged my learning activities, but also as a more experienced researcher who was there to participate in this process with me and to help me begin to enter the research community. Shop-floor learning involves learners and educators participating in multistranded learning activities, which require an organizational factor of careful planning and delivery. As with learning activities, which can be multi-stranded, so too, there can be multiple orientations to learning on the shop floor. In our stories, you will see that these six workers and I didn't exhibit just one orientation to learning in our stories. Our stories demonstrate that we could be behaviorist and cognitivist and humanist and social learners and constructivist in our orientation to learning. Our stories show that learning is complex and involves multiple strands, orientations, and factors. Our stories show that learning narratives capture the essence of learning-the learners, the educators, the learning activities, the organizational factors, and the learning orientations. Learning narratives can help learners and educators make sense of shop-floor learning.

Evolution of architectural floor plans

Layout planning is a process of sizing and placing rooms (e.g. in a house) while a t t empt ing to optimize various criteria. Often the r e are conflicting c r i t e r i a such as construction cost, minimizing the distance between r e l a t ed activities, and meeting the area requirements for these activities. The process of layout planning ha s mostly been done by hand, wi th a handful of a t t empt s to automa t e the process. Thi s thesis explores some of these pa s t a t t empt s and describes several new techniques for automa t ing the layout planning process using evolutionary computation. These techniques a r e inspired by the existing methods, while adding some of the i r own innovations. Additional experimenLs are done to t e s t the possibility of allowing polygonal exteriors wi th rectilinear interior walls. Several multi-objective approaches are used to evaluate and compare fitness. The evolutionary r epr e s ent a t ion and requirements specification used provide great flexibility in problem scope and depth and is worthy of considering in future layout and design a t t empt s . The system outlined in thi s thesis is capable of evolving a variety of floor plans conforming to functional and geometric specifications. Many of the resulting plans look reasonable even when compared to a professional floor plan. Additionally polygonal and multi-floor buildings were also generated.

Canadian Niagara Power Glass Slide - Engineer Drawing (untitled)

Engineer drawing (untitled), some of the labels read "exciter chamber", "fore bay", "power house floor".

Chamber's Historical Questions with Answers

The book is hardcover and inscribed with an illegible signature, dated 1880 and below that is the signature Margaret J. Woodruff. The preface of the book begins, "The present work is designed to fulfil an important purpose in Education - that of bringing clearly into view the leading facts which are supposed to be gained through a long course of instruction. Without proposing to supersede the elementary books usually employed, it offers a certain test of what is presumed to have been previously learned. With such a work in their hands, Schoolmasters, Tutors, Governesses, or Parents, may at once satisfy themselves as to the degree of knowledge on a variety of subjects attained by the young person under their charge, and for whose intellectual culture they feel a special interest." The full text is available in the Brock University Special Collections and Archives.

St. Catharines and District Chamber of Commerce records, 1943-1992, n.d.

The St. Catharines and District Chamber of Commerce merged with the Thorold Chamber of Commerce in 2006. In 2012, they joined a region wide Chamber, becoming part of the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber is a "is a non-partisan, non-sectarian association of businesses, groups and individuals who support business growth and effective government fostering a sustainable and vibrant Niagara."

Engineer estimate (5 ½ pages, handwritten) in the marsh lands drainage presented to the Chamber and Councilors of the County of Welland in council assembled

Engineer estimate (5 ½ pages, handwritten) in the marsh lands drainage presented to the Chamber and Councilors of the County of Welland in council assembled. This report is signed by S.D. Woodruff, June 20, 1857.