Issue 3 – Monday 4th March 2019
HeadSUP
Great to see so many new students about the campus and at the Faculty of Science pōwhiri where we welcomed them onto our marvellous Waipapa Marae and they transitioned from being manuhiri (visitors) to whanau (family). Be sure to give them a warm welcome over the next few weeks and take special care of the lost ones. Many of you have helped out during orientation – a big job, thanks very much!
As we head into the start of the semester, good luck to all our new academic staff, GTAs and TAs. Teaching can be a lot of fun, and challenging. Mel Wall is leading the Teaching and Learning Innovation Team – if you hit a snag or want some ideas about course organisation and strategies to improve learning, don’t be shy in making contact.
Other news: Professor Joel Baker has resigned his academic position with UOA effective from 1 March and has switched onto a 2-year part-time position to focus on his research projects and PG students. Joel has put in huge effort over the past few years in the research space, supporting many of us with our research applications. Thanks Joel! We look forward to hearing news of the speleothem project, which is getting exciting with high-resolution dates coming in.
And, Simrin Ahmed has been promoted to a new position and will be leaving us soon – thanks for looking after us so well, we will miss you!
The QS subject rankings were released last week: great news for Geography, up one place to 28. Earth and Marine Science stayed in the top 100 and Environmental Science is in the top 150.
Lastly, if you are a new (or old student), keep an eye out for Joe Fagan, who is back from a year cycling around the world. Joe is heading the Student Experience Committee – we’re in for a good ride!
New Zealand Geographical Society Excellence in Geography Awards
The New Zealand Geographical Society at the Awards Ceremony being held on Tuesday 12th March.
Please click here for more information
funding calls for all of our major research funders (for staff)
The Funds and Submissions Team have compiled a list of funding calls for all of our major research funders. Check it out:
Price list for casuals (for staff)
Do you need to “price” the cost of a casual contract (for internal or external funding applications) Here’s a useful page that addresses costs per hour for 2019.
New pages to P-Cubed!
P-Cubed is expanding! If you haven’t seen already – we have added a “How to do stuff” page (here). This page will be a helpful resource to get stuff done within the School of Environment. We will also be adding “classified ads” at the bottom of each blog post, for in-house advertising – you can see this at the bottom of this post.
Check it out!
Farewell to Simrin
Our Group Services Administrator, Simrin Ahmed will be moving on from the School of Environment on the 15th March. Simrin was successful in her application for a Research Programme Coordinator position (Supporting Physics and Chem). This is fantastic opportunity for Simrin and a great step in her career progression. Simrin has done a fantastic job supporting both the school of Environment, as well as being a highly engaged member of our Group Services team, she will be sorely missed. The search for Simrin’s replacement is underway and the School will be updated once an appointment has been made.
Health and safety reminder
Field work
Field activity is any work carried out for the purpose of teaching, research or representing the University off-site, where facility for health and safety is not managed by another host institution.
Any time you wish to undertake field work you need to complete a Field Activity Plan (copy attached) before you undertake the work.
All of the documents relating to field work at the University can be found here http://www.env.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/our-school/health-safety-and-wellbeing.html.
If you are unsure if your work requires a field activity plan then please ask Blair.
Driving assessments and ENV vehicles
You will need to undergo a driving assessment (just once) if you wish to drive any of the School vehicles; assessments are booked through Blair. The use of private vehicles for University work is only approved in exceptional circumstances. The School has a fleet of vehicles to use which includes 2x Utes, 1x Van and 1x 7 Seater SUV.
All of the vehicles have automatic transmissions and can be booked through https://appis.sit.auckland.ac.nz/admin/CarScience/ Vehicles have fuel cards and are billed against the charge code you supply when making the booking. Your students need to complete assessments as well, so don’t forget to tell them.
PhD proposal Seminar
Title: Reef Islands from Space: A Remote Sensing -Machine Learning Approach to Identify the Drivers of Reef Island Change in the Pacific
Presenter: Meghna Sengupta
When/Where: Tuesday 5 March 12PM, 302-140
Click here for more information
PSC Career Forum
The love and enthusiasm for science do not necessarily translate into staying in academia after obtaining a postgraduate degree. Yes, for some it does, you could get a PhD, a couple of postdoc positions, and then become a professor or a researcher full time. However, more than 50% of all doctoral degree holders work outside academia or research. So, what non-academic options are out there in the real world if you decide academia is not for you?
This Career Forum will try to answer this question and hopefully help you define career choices as you work towards and finish your postgraduate degree.
Computer labs
To those who teach in the computer labs. Please check software as soon as possible this week. There is still room for emergency changes. Please contact Ingo (i.pecher@auckland.ac.nz) if you have any problems – will forward to IT.
Leapfrog changes
Leapfrog licensing is changing — we still get academic licenses but they are now to individual users, rather than dongles. Anyone who is using Leapfrog, please contact Ingo (i.pecher@auckland.ac.nz) by Fri. 15 March.
Research Support Team Updates
It has been a really busy time with Marsden and MBIE proposals. Thanks very much for your understanding until the round is over!
Funding call for RSNZ – Rutherford Discovery Fellowship has just been released. More info on: Rutherford Discovery Fellowship 2019
“The Funds and Submissions Team have compiled a list of funding calls for all of our major research funders. Check it out:
You should check with JR also the following one (related to the attached one):
Do you need to “price” the cost of a casual contract (for internal or external funding applications)? Here’s a useful page that addresses costs per hour for 2019. (and you need to do some magic and add a link to the file attached)
Tree-Ring Lab news
Prof. Neil Loader and Dr Giles Young (Prifysgol Abertawe / Swansea University UK) visited the Tree-Ring Lab for two weeks in February, on an exchange programme supported by a Royal Society of New Zealand Catalyst Grant. Neil and Giles are part of the Dendro Isotope group at Swansea, using tree ring stable isotope ratios to reconstruct climate of the past and for dating wood in circumstances where conventional dendrochronology may not work. We are collaborating on a project exploring the potential for isotopic dating of archaeological wood in New Zealand using kauri, matai and miro. Their visit included meeting Alan Hogg, Waikato Radiocarbon Dating Lab, and fieldwork at Pureora Forest and Huapai Scientific Reserve. Neil will make a second visit at the end of the year, when we hope to have some interesting results to report from our research.
Photo: Gretel, Neil and Giles and Pouakani, a very large totara tree, near Pureora Forest.
Mentoring
The School of Environment is currently looking to review and expand the mentoring scheme currently in place. Mentoring takes on a variety of different forms, but aims to provides support, information and knowledge sharing, tailored to individual needs. It might be formalised or informal and take the form of a partnership with more experienced staff or a peer support group. It is always a mutually agreed negotiated relationship and does not usually involve a direct line manager.
The current mentoring model formalises the mentor / mentee relationship for new staff pre-continuation as required by the Faculty of Science. This type of mentoring is considered developmental and instrumental and is intended to guide the mentee through the Institutional process of gaining continuation using a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goal setting process. Mentors meet with mentees every 3 months to review progress, strategize and set new priorities and goals where appropriate. This is separate from the Faculty run Early Career Mentoring Scheme which Jan Lindsay coordinates. More details can be found about this here.
Other types of mentoring which we see within the school is more informal, and ad hoc. Individuals might ask senior colleagues or peers for advice surrounding a particular issue such as promotion, teaching evaluations, or sabbatical or maternity leave. Meetings might take place regularly or as required and are usually prompted by a request from the mentee rather than a ‘nag’ from the mentor.
If you would like to find out more about what the School currently offers you can find this here. The University of Auckland also has a number of formal mentoring programmes in operation which you can read about on the University of Auckland Mentoring and Coaching resources website.
Would you like a mentor within the School of Environment?
We would like all forms of mentoring especially peer mentoring and SMART objective setting type mentoring to be available to everyone and are looking to pilot new schemes and build new partnerships based on demand. If you would like a mentor to help with a specific process or issue or just general advice on career progression and time management please let me know.
Would you like to be a mentor?
If you would like to be a mentor and support colleagues please also let me know. More information about the mentoring process can also be found here.
Do you have an experience of mentoring (either formal or informal)?
I’m really keen to hear any comments that you may have (positive or negative) about your experience either as a mentor or mentee. I’d like to understand better what works and what doesn’t, and what you think is currently missing from the process, from both perspectives. Any suggestions regarding the future development of the mentoring programme would also be warmly received.
Teaching Cultures Survey
The University of Auckland is taking part in the Teaching Cultures Survey, a survey in which 13 universities across the world are participating. Like this wider group of universities, we are looking to understand more about how the status of teaching and learning is viewed by the academic community. This will help inform the ongoing development of the University’s teaching and learning strategy. Following this 2019 survey, our aim is to repeat the survey in 2021 and 2023 to track any changes in staff views.
The survey (here) is seeking your views about the status of university teaching at the University of Auckland. The survey comprises 22 check box response items. It should take no longer than 6 minutes to complete. It will be open from 18 February to 6 March.
Taking part is voluntary and confidential: aside from Faculty affiliation, gender and years of service at the University no personal information is collected. Your data are anonymous, stored and transferred securely and used only for the purpose of this survey. The University will not have access to these data. The study is being conducted by independent researchers based in the United Kingdom, who will manage the data collection and storage in accordance with established research standards. By completing the survey you are giving consent for your responses to be used in the study. Your data will not be shared with the university nor with any third party and it will not be used for anything other than this research. Further information about the survey is given on the attached information sheet.
The university will receive a report setting out the findings from their own institution and be able to compare these with the aggregated results from other participating universities. Where the number of survey participants in a particular group at Auckland is small, findings will be presented in ways that protect anonymity, for example, by combining groups.
We very much hope that you will support this study by completing the survey. Should you have any questions about the survey please feel free to contact me – g.aitken@auckland.ac.nz
You can read the information leaflet here
Sustainability teaching module
As most of you know the sustainability teaching module starts this year with SUSTAIN 100 running in the second semester. I’ve attached two flyers – one about SUSTAIN 100 and one about the module as a whole. Please feel free to share these and promote the module as appropriate.
If you are interested in contributing to the teaching of any of the courses, you are invited to a meeting on Wednesday 27 February from 10 – 11.30am in 302.230. If you can’t make the meeting but are interested, please email me. We will also approach people for one-off guest lectures or to be on a panel about our case studies on water, population (SUSTAIN 100), food, inequality (SUSTAIN 200) and atmosphere (SUSTAIN 300).
Read here for more information
Introductory GIS Workshop
Introductory GIS course is being organised for the interested graduate and postgraduate students during the semester break.
Click here to complete the expression of interest survey
Service Delivery Model for Libraries and Learning Services – Te Tumu Herenga
In 2018 Libraries and Learning Services – Te Tumu Herenga undertook a review of its services and structure. As a result of this review there are now four new functions that deal directly with staff and students:
- Client Services: Deal with questions raised through the Ask us portal on the LLS – TTH home page or face to face through libraries and information commons, connecting you with the correct functional expert as necessary
- Research Services: Provide advice to you and PhD students on resources and tools to help shape your research projects by enabling discovery, use, sharing, and management of information.
- Learning and Teaching Development: Work with you and students to design, develop and integrate resources which foster students’ academic skills development
- Academic Engagement: Work with faculty and LSRI leadership and committees to identify strategic areas of need, promote new and existing services, resources and technologies and connect you with functional experts, services and collections
To facilitate working together our faculty has a support team comprising an Academic Engagement Adviser and at least one Research Services Adviser and one Learning and Teaching Development Adviser. Our team is listed below. You can also find their details on the Contact us section of the LLS – TTH website. Please feel free to contact them directly with research or learning and teaching questions.
Academic Engagement Adviser: Justene McNeice
Learning and Teaching Development Advisers: Liz Hardley, Sumia Quazi
Research Advisers: Jo Simons, Derryl Hayman
Māori Academic Engagement Adviser: Manuhiri HuatahiPacific Academic Engagement Adviser: Judy McFall-McCaffery
Any general queries can be raised through Ask us or directly with a Client Services team member when you visit LLS – TTH in person. If you wish to order a new resource for the collection this can be done via the online recommendation form.
Welcome new MSc Student
Please welcome intern MSc student Thibault Romao visiting from the University of Bordeaux, France. Thibault is visiting us for 5 months and working on Antarctic marine sediment core and bathymetry data from offshore Adelie Land with Dr Lorna Strachan and Dr Helen Bostock (NIWA). He is based on the 4th floor of building 302, please say hello!
The 2019 Darcy Lecture Series in Groundwater Science
Click here to read more information
Classified Ads
Sabbatical Accommodation
Three bedroom furnished house in Mt Albert available for 3-12 month period from mid-June 2019. Family-friendly large yard, fenced with trees and gardens. Modern kitchen, two bathrooms. Easy (20-30min) travel to city campus by train and/or bus. Close to primary and secondary schools, parks, and shopping. Further information, contact: Robin Kearns r.kearns@auckland.ac.nz
