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Since 2017, TeachingCity has successfully achieved a reputation for building upon the collaborative assets of its pooled community partnerships in addressing Oshawa's urban issues. Through truly innovative ways, TeachingCity has achieved the following results over the past four years:
TeachingCity Impact
Projects
Engagement
Courses
Project Spotlight
Below you will find a few TeachingCity Projects spotlighted. For a full list of all past, current and ongoing projects, please visit the TeachingCity Progress Reports page.
Active Transportation for an Age-Friendly Community
The City collaborated with the Oshawa Senior Community Centres (OSCC55+) and Dr. Shilpa Dogra from Ontario Tech University on a research study to understand barriers to active transportation for Oshawa’s Older Adult community. Study outcomes include an overview of the barriers Older Adults face when it comes to active transportation (cycling, walking, etc.) in our community and recommendations on how to address the identified barriers. The results of the study will help advance the City’s Integrated Transportation Master Plan and the Oshawa Age-friendly Strategy and help inform the City’s planning policies. Congratulations are in order for Dr. Dogra as the study has been published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
Bee City Challenges - Urban Bee Keeping and Pollinator Campaign
An interdisciplinary Durham College (DC) team consisting of School of Science & Engineering Technology faculty members; Architectural Technology and Environmental Technology students; and DC’s entrepreneurship center FastStartDC and its members have collaborated to investigate the potential for and impacts of introducing an urban beekeeping program in Oshawa and to develop an awareness campaign educating citizens around the importance of pollinators and celebrating pollinator initiatives in Oshawa.
Objective 1: Investigate how the City can establish an urban beekeeping program that ensures the health and wellbeing of community and pollinators
Objective 2: Examine impacts of urban beekeeping on native pollinators
Objective 3: Support pollinator populations, educate citizens, celebrate pollinator initiatives, and measure success
Re-animating the Downtown and Building Consumer Confidence
In August 2020, the City of Oshawa partnered with Brilliant Solutions at Ontario Tech University on a project related to “Re-animation of the City of Oshawa’s downtown”. The project engaged students to study ways to re-animate the City of Oshawa’s Downtown and encourage consumers to return to the downtown post-Covid 19.This project was in response to a Call for Interest issued by TeachingCity Oshawa around Local Economic Recovery, post COVID-19 and aligned with the work of the Mayor’s Economic Recovery Taskforce.
The project employed six students from Ontario Tech (two from the Faculty of Business & IT and four from the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities), who were employed full-time for a one month period to conduct this research project.
The students were tasked with the following:
Conduct research on best practices that cities are following on a regional, provincial and national scale here in Canada and internationally.
Engage identified stakeholders to get qualitative feedback that will provide a richer context and foundation for possible recommendations.
Identify options and create recommendations for a presentation to City staff that will inform the possible development of future economic recovery plans, actions, policies and projects.
Stormwater Management Study
Under the supervision of Dr. Andrea Kirkwood, Ontario Tech University graduate student Alex Johnston along with undergraduate students Denin Grey and Jesse Killoran, studied 15 Stormwater Management Ponds across Oshawa to assess their water quality and determine the role of aquatic plants in stormwater treatment between May 2018 and April 2020.Highlights from the study include confirmation that stormwater management ponds:
vary in their ability to remove nutrients from stormwater; and,
can sometimes be a source of phosphorus to receiving waters.
It was also determined that submerged aquatic plants may play a role in trapping nutrients, which ultimately improves stormwater treatment.Conclusions and recommendations from this study will be used by the City to guide its stormwater management pond policies.
