AMPUS NEWS _ wroxrvatoore THE DAILY VOICE, TUESDAY, APRIL 1, 2014 3 Statistic students Michelle Mapanao, Hannah Paddit, and Serena Ha display their work at the statistics exposition. Stats take over cafeteria Langara math and statistics department research caffeine and pets By LUKASZ JONCA xcitement stormed the cafeteria last week as the Langara math and statistics department held its third annual statistics exposition. The exposition first started in 2013 to celebrate the international year of sta- tistics. In all of Langara’s statistics courses students must complete a term project. Students design their own sta- tistical investigation in something that interests them, and then they design their investigation, collect their own data and analyze it. For example, one project tried to cor- relate caffeine consumption with GPA, another tried to link pet ownership with GPA. Another looked at preferred payments methods at Tim Hortons. Cheryl McKeeman is the student ad- visor for the department of mathemat- ics and statistics. “Tt’s been really interesting to watch my colleagues who are doing the expo because it’s a different kind of work ... I’m really loving that they are almost dancing in the hallways. They are so happy with the students and the proj- ects.” There were approximately 100 post- ers presented by 260 students. The stu- dents were enrolled in STAT 1123 and STAT 1124. Four instructors from the department of mathematics and statis- tics were involved: Kevin Craib, Maja Grubisic, Robin Susanto and Albert Wong. Kevin Craib, chairman of the depart- ment, has spent roughly 30 years doing medical research. He said posters are one of the best methods of sharing in- formation at scientific conferences. “The skills we love our students to leave Langara with are quantitative skills and presentation skills and I think this brings the two together,” Craib said. “What I have found over the last couple of semesters while we’ve been doing this is they just keep getting bet- ter and better. Their presentations are very impressive.” The problems the students faced were small sample sizes, which ranged around the 100 mark, and questions that were sometimes unclear to the subjects. A project by Ann Aung and Deana Brewer on graphology to see if writing size correlates with personality traits was inconclusive. “We don’t have enough data to truly confirm it, but it seems like men may write slightly smaller than women,” Brewer said “Tf we had a larger study size we may be able to find some correlation with gender.” LUKASZ JONCA photo 66 What I have found over the last couple of semes- ters while we’ve been doing this is they just keep get- ting better and better KEVIN CRAIB Langara partners with UNBC Langara College and UNBC have collaborated to offer a social work bach- elor’s degree for students By JEREMY MATTHEWS of Northern B.C. are joining forces to offer a social work bachelor’s de- gree program on campus this fall. The two-and-a-half year program is aimed at giving students the basic skills required to be a social worker, in- cluding caregiving and effective com- munication. Langara social work instructor Jo- seph Rosen says that the program was highly demanded by his students. “We have a lot of students whose ul- timate goal is a bachelor’s degree.” He said that Langara’s learning at- mosphere and convenient location made it an attractive option for some to complete their undergraduate educa- tions. The first semester of the Langara- based program is equivalent to the 3" year of a UNBC social work bachelor’s degree program. Classes will be held during weekday evenings and weekends, and a portion of the program is conducted through online courses. Program chair Dawn Hemingway ex- plained the schedule, which was de- signed to “make it more accessible for students wishing to be employed dur- ing the program.” The partnership between the schools is not a new trend, as they have teamed up for a business program since 2007. Both schools have long-running so- cial work programs, which have coop- erated on community projects in the past. Rosen said there is a “significant level of trust between UNBC and Lang- ara.” Applicants to the program can enter with 60 university-transfer credits or a related bachelor’s degree. The registration deadline for the Fall 2014 semester is May 15. Les College and the University Student fights sexual assault Langara student Melissa Malano has started a pledge to raise awareness about the is- sue of sexual assault and more than a 100 people have already signed Malano’s pledge By ASHLEY LEGASSIC fighting back against rape and sex- ual assault, and Langara’s playing a part in this battle. After the 21-year-old criminology student’s own experience with sexual assault, she decided to start a pledge for students to express their support for this ongoing issue, and has gained over 100 signatures so far. Many of the men who signed the pledge denounce mainstream media’s idea of “college sex and promiscuity,” suggested Malano. “In our popular culture nowadays, they put emphasis on the whole ‘sex and drugs being the in thing,’ and a lot of younger people kind of have this misconception to think that going out and getting laid on a Friday or Satur- day night on a daily basis is OK, and snorting coke off someone’s ass is cool, because that’s what we see in music Lis student Melissa Malano is videos,” said Malano. Student Eyren Ug- genti helped Malano when she started the B)petition, suggesting Fito her that opening Pathe petition up, rath- ‘ “el than obtaining ex- = clusively male signa- MELISSA MALANO tures, would get aut pledge 4S" support from the stu- dent body as a whole. 6 6 Uggenti also be- lieves that it’s a taboo subject that people ... they put aren’t necessarily _ willing to open up emp ha about. sis on the “When [Melissa] ‘ first started talking whole ‘sex about it, I was kind of and drugs taken back and then I ' was like ‘OK, what’s being the actually trying to be in thing’ accomplished _ here and how can we go about doing that?” Uggenti said. “I think awareness is some of the key.” Women are ashamed to tell their story because they would rather forget the situation ever happened, Malano suggested. “These women that have been as- saulted blame themselves, and I can relate to that because I did that too,” Malano said. “It’s part of the healing process to just completely forget it al- together.” Glenn Ruby of the Langara Falcons men’s basketball team thinks the topic needs to be addressed more openly. “Even if I haven’t heard of any of those cases ... obviously those things do take place,” said Ruby. “Something like rape or assault can really damage someone permanently, so it’s definitely something that needs to be focused on.” MELISSA MALANO photo Langara students take part in signing Melissa Mala- no’s pledge against sexual assault and rape, which has gained over 100 signatures since its creation.