TeachingCity Oshawa highlights year five of innovative partnership

The City of Oshawa and its education and research partners – Durham College, Ontario Tech University, Trent University Durham Greater Toronto Area (Trent Durham) and the University of Toronto’s Department of Civil and Mineral Engineering – are pleased to announce that the 2021/2022 TeachingCity Oshawa Progress Report is now available online at TeachingCityOshawa.ca.

The Progress Report highlights numerous accomplishments achieved in year five of the TeachingCity Oshawa partnership, which spans from September 2021 to August 2022.  Some of the notable projects include:

• 11 City Idea Lab courses – Working in a hybrid-learning environment, more than 250 students from Durham College, Ontario Tech University and Trent Durham collaborated with faculty and City staff to co-design possible solutions to various challenge questions within the community. The City Idea Lab experiential learning opportunities were offered via credit courses during the fall and winter semesters.
• Age-Friendly Competency Game – Faculty and students from Ontario Tech University developed an interactive training tool to train City and Oshawa Senior Community Centres 55+ (OSCC55+) staff in the application of an age-friendly lens in service and program delivery. The training immerses staff in scenario-based learning through a custom Gamified Educational Network with competency-based assessments. This innovative training provides a framework to learn and demonstrate age-friendly cultural competencies enhancing support for the city’s aging population.
• Engaging Youth through Digital Media – Faculty and students from Trent Durham designed and facilitated filmmaking workshops to provide an opportunity for youth to engage in digital literacy. This provided local high school students the opportunity to apply their new knowledge to develop computer safety skills through the creation of short films.
• Virtual Reality Firefighter Training – Durham College faculty and students are collaborating with Oshawa Fire Services to develop a virtual reality simulation of an uncontrolled, structural collapse scenario to enhance training for firefighters. Through this technology, it is anticipated that firefighters will be better equipped from training in an immersive environment and will learn to manage stressors, optimize performance and reduce injuries and incidences of post-traumatic stress.
• Student Placements – The City oversaw more than 40 student placement and practicum opportunities, which provided students the opportunity to further develop real-life applied skills in a work-integrated learning environment. Through placement opportunities, post-secondary students bring new ideas and fresh perspectives to City departments and staff and help support the achievement of department goals and corporate initiatives.

About TeachingCity

TeachingCity brings together the City of Oshawa and its education and research partners – Durham College, Ontario Tech University, Trent University Durham Greater Toronto Area, and the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering.

The partners address Oshawa’s urban issues through innovation, collaboration, applied research and shared experiential learning opportunities with the aim to position Oshawa as a local, national and global community of urban research and learning.

Learn more about TeachingCity at TeachingCityOshawa.ca and follow #OshTeachingCity on Twitter and Instagram.

Quotes:

“This is a milestone year for TeachingCity Oshawa as we celebrate the five-year anniversary of this collaboration with our post-secondary and research partners,” said Mayor Dan Carter. “TeachingCity continues to bring new ideas and creative solutions to the great City of Oshawa. On behalf of Council, thank you to the faculty and post-secondary students for your innovative work and amazing contributions.”

“The TeachingCity partnership is experiential learning at its best. The ability to participate in the problem-solving of real-life issues that directly impact residents and businesses provides students with essential hands-on training, allowing them to tap into innovative ways of thinking to strengthen the skills learned in the classroom,” says Don Lovisa, president, DC. “The City Idea Lab courses and virtual reality firefighter training are just two of the ways Durham College is leading the way for tomorrow’s graduates to make meaningful contributions in our communities – at home and across the globe – and we are grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with the City of Oshawa and our post-secondary partners.”

“Hands-on learning is a core component of the Ontario Tech University experience,” said Dr. Steven Murphy, President and Vice-Chancellor, Ontario Tech University. “We’re thankful for another successful year of partnership with the City of Oshawa and the organizations involved in TeachingCity projects. Our students gain valuable, practical experience as they team with City staff to develop innovative solutions that harness technology to make a positive impact in their local community. We look forward to many more years of creativity, collaboration and innovation as we continue to build upon the success of our TeachingCity framework.”

“This report captures the activities of another successful academic year in the TeachingCity partnership. I want to recognize the impact and contributions made by students as they participated in addressing a number of relevant social challenges,” said Dr. Scott Henderson, Dean and Head, Trent University Durham GTA. “The pandemic has certainly created a challenging environment to work in, but the students have not only excelled in finding innovative solutions and tangible outcomes, but they’ve gained valuable research experience along the way.”

“U of T Engineering strives to develop the whole engineer – experiential learning is a significant part of that,” said Professor Brent Sleep, Chair of the Department of Civil & Mineral Engineering at the University of Toronto. “By partnering with TeachingCity Oshawa, our students are able to understand the impacts of what they are learning; we look forward to continued collaboration with TeachingCity Oshawa.”