Campusnews EDITOR NATALIA BUENDIA CALVILLO | A teenager in New York shown dissecting an animal eye as part of a class based on teaching students about optics. evan Amos PHOTO dont provide all the nuances 3D animations, = By DESIREE GARCIA umane substitutions for biological dissections, like 3D animations, fail to provide all the educational benefits a real animal offers, according to academics and students. DISSECTIONS AT LANGARA 1. Animals used Rodents, quails, sharks, inverte- brates. 2. No more cats Langara has stopped using feline specimens since 2016. 3. Post-dissection Used specimens get sent as food for birds of prey in recovery to the OWL Society. 4. Vivisections Langara has never done or will do vivisections. SOURCE: LANGARA COLLEGE while humane, Many times 3D animations do not show the differences between animals within the same species and may include inaccurate information or design errors, ac- cording to a UBC Neurosci- PhD candidate. Langara College said in an email to The Voice that although they believe useful additions such as alternative educational tech- nologies, like 3D animations and software, can be useful during the student’s learning process, it is not fully capable of providing all of the information possible, such as show- ing diversification within species. Parker Holman, UBC PhD candidate in neuroscience, said he stands on both sides of the debate.“ think there are pros and cons. For both, using animals and using other educational technologies, I think the biggest thing I would say is no matter what you use, you're limited by the instructor in the lesson,” said Holman. Holman prefers fewer animals to be used and if necessary, they must be treated humanely during the process. “If there are not good instruc- tions given, students don't know how to dissect, or where to begin.” Holman said technologies can be useful but students and faculty should be cautious when using technology because sometimes they are not accurate. “Many times, technologies are overly simplified, and they don't reflect the actual ” biological complexity. “I'm not either or, I'm a both advocate,“ Sara Dubois, SPCA Chief Scien- tific Officer, said tech- nology has advanced enough that students no longer need ani- mal cadavers to learn about them. “Thankfully the technology has really caught up with our needs for learning and so that has always been the position of the BC SPCA that classroom dissections are un- necessary and you actually have better learning outcomes with al- ternatives now,” Dubois said Dubois said that the culture of science needs to change to be more compassionate towards ani- mals. “We're not going to do that by teaching young students in high school or in undergraduate studies that animals are tools to be taken apart.” Jasmine Roque, a former student who took biology courses at Lan- gara said she is on the fence about dissection. “Sometimes you do need to do the actual animal just to see what it looks like as compared to a model, because sometimes models they look too perfect or they may not always look like the real thing,” Roque said. Roque said educational technol- ogy alone would not be enough to teach what a dissection can but it can be useful before and after to enhance learn- “T think 3D models are point of practice initially while you're getting used to visualizing or- gans and things and then you'd like, go into an ac- tual model afterwards versus hav- ing, dissecting, more animals, like if you're going to do it multiple times,” she said. a good THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 2018 | THE VOICE 3 Bullied or not: What defines the experience Blurred lines exist when figuring out what bullying is or isnt = By CAMERON THOMSON s discussions on bullying happen on campus, the actions that can be inter- preted as bullying can still be un- clear to some Langara students. On Feb. 28, Langara celebrated Pink Shirt Day, an initiative that has been raising money for anti- bullying programs by selling t- shirts and creating awareness for 11 years. This year's theme was cy- berbullying. The extent to when an action is considered bullying is still blurry for some students. Langara student, Kelly Jokan- ovich said that some dismissive and petty behaviours coming from teachers, and while they are not considered bullying, they leave a negative learning experience. Jokanovich said that some topics discussed in class made her feel un- comfortable. "It was a very weird situation, I had never really faced anything like that before where I was being in- directly attacked and in some cases directly verbally attacked by some- one in authority,” eo Jokanovich said. Studio 58 be- came the _ first theater school in Canada to adopt the Not In Our Space! cam- paign. Founded by the Canadian Actors’ Equity Association, its purpose is to cre- ate workspaces. Michelle Morris, Studio 58 student, helped bring the anti harrassment campaign to Langara. “A lot of the problems in the industry start at school. They are not only between stu- dents but between teachers,” Morris said. Noor Fadel, a Langara student, said she has experienced cyber- bullying via Snapchat aimed at women wearing a hijab. “They would take a [photo] and put all these lines in between us and say ‘connect the terrorists,’ Fadel said. Kelly -_. PSYCHOLOGY STUDENT Science Less than a quar- ter females in some science programs m By LISA STEACY ccording to the Langara Institutional Research Department, women made up 38 per cent of students in Lan- gara’s university transfer science programs at the start of Fall 2017. Less than 25 per cent of students in physics, engineering and com- puter science were women, while biology had a 65 per cent enroll- ment. An event held on Feb. 21 by the biology club called Women in needs women Science was one way to promote inclusivity and address gender in- equality on campus. Patricia Aroca-Ouellette, chemistry chair at Langara, said at the event she lost a post- doctoral schol- arship when she became pregnant and needed mater- Paul Habbas nity leave. Her presipent oF THE male colleague, — B/OLOGY CLUB who broke his leg skiing, was given time off and allowed to keep his scholarship. “One of the things all of us will probably have in common, even though our stories are very differ- ent, is persistence. It’s not about be- ing brilliant. It’s about being persis- tent,” said Aroca-Ouellette. Marni Mishna, SFU Mathemat- ics professor, said that income in- equality, underrepresentation in faculties and bad stereotypes such as “women can't do science” dis- courage women’s participation. She said that science would benefit from the different perspectives that women can contribute. "It might mean changing mod- els and I think it's worth doing be- cause I think we benefit when we have lots of different perspectives,” said Mishna. Paul Habbas, biology club presi- dent said these events are to rec- ognize and try to close the gen- eral gender gap in STEM fields. “It's to raise awareness about inclu- sivity and that could be said for a lot of other things in our world and this world is unfortunately not as inclusive as we hope it to be one day." Nancy Biu, second-year biology student, observing a specimen at the biology study room inside the T Building eHoTo By Lisa STEACY