EDITORIAL : A research priority for biodiversity conservation

Conservation biology emerged as a scientific discipline in the mid-1980s with the explicit practical goal of conserving species and habitats. The term ‘biodiversity’ was coined soon after, apparently at some time during the organization of the September 1986 National Forum on Biodiversity held by the US National Academy of Sciences and the Smithsonian Institution. The science of conservation biology was quickly taken up. Journals proliferated and textbooks soon followed. Laboratories within university biology and ecology departments specialized in conservation biology. Along with a great many other young biologists and ecologists, I climbed the moral high ground and set about research to help change the future by discovering how to protect biodiversity.

Member spotlight

In this feature of the Bulletin, we highlight members of the SIGCSE community. In this issue, Bulletin co-editor Charles Wallace interviewed Dr. Brett Becker, Assistant Professor in the School of Computer Science at University College Dublin (UCD) in Ireland. Brett double-majored in Computer Science and Physics at Drew University in New Jersey. He then moved to Ireland and completed an M.Sc. in Computational Science and a Ph.D. in Computer Science (Heterogeneous Parallel Computing) at UCD. Since then, he has completed three postgraduate qualifications in Teaching & Learning including an MA in Higher Education. His research interests include the psychology and other human factors of learning programming, including how novices interact with programming languages and environments. In 2020, he received a Teaching and Learning Research Fellowship from the Irish National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education - the highest individual national distinction the sector offers to those teaching in higher education. Brett is active in all four SIGCSE conferences including serving as Chair of the CompEd Steering Committee and Co-chairing ITiCSE 2022 in Dublin next summer. He has co-authored several award-winning papers including best computing education research papers (SIGCSE Technical Symposium 2019, 2021) and best reviewed paper (ICER 2020). Brett is chair of the Ireland ACM SIGCSE Chapter and recently co-authored a textbook aligned with the Irish national second-level Computer Science curriculum.

Weaving a Storytelling Tapestry Using Computational Thinking

Computational thinking is a way of formulating a problem so that a computer can find a solution. It involves looking for patterns within multiple sets of data and using algorithmic thinking to find solutions. In this way, it becomes a critical literacy for future-ready youth. In this paper the authors share partial results from a National Forum on Computational Thinking funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, explaining computational thinking, exploring cross-cultural connections of the story sequence, and sharing how computational thinking can be used to create and analyze a story within the context of this story sequence.

Information and Research Science connecting to Digital and Library Science

Since 2005 the Italian Research Conference on Digital Libraries is a yearly date for researchers on Digital Libraries and related topics, organized by the Italian Research Community. Over the years, IRCDL has become an essential national forum focused on digital libraries and associated technical, practical, and social issues. IRCDL encompasses the many meanings of the term digital libraries, including new forms of information institutions; operational information systems with all manner of digital content; new means of selecting, collecting, organizing, and distributing digital content; and theoretical models of information media, including document genres and electronic publishing.

Cancer Informatics for Cancer Centers: Scientific Drivers for Informatics, Data Science, and Care in Pediatric, Adolescent, and Young Adult Cancer

Cancer Informatics for Cancer Centers (CI4CC) is a grassroots, nonprofit 501c3 organization intended to provide a focused national forum for engagement of senior cancer informatics leaders, primarily aimed at academic cancer centers anywhere in the world but with a special emphasis on the 70 National Cancer Institute–funded cancer centers. This consortium has regularly held topic-focused biannual face-to-face symposiums. These meetings are a place to review cancer informatics and data science priorities and initiatives, providing a forum for discussion of the strategic and pragmatic issues that we faced at our respective institutions and cancer centers. Here, we provide meeting highlights from the latest CI4CC Symposium, which was delayed from its original April 2020 schedule because of the COVID-19 pandemic and held virtually over three days (September 24, October 1, and October 8) in the fall of 2020. In addition to the content presented, we found that holding this event virtually once a week for 6 hours was a great way to keep the kind of deep engagement that a face-to-face meeting engenders. This is the second such publication of CI4CC Symposium highlights, the first covering the meeting that took place in Napa, California, from October 14-16, 2019. We conclude with some thoughts about using data science to learn from every child with cancer, focusing on emerging activities of the National Cancer Institute's Childhood Cancer Data Initiative.

Cuidado farmacêutico na fotoproteção: Ações de educação em saúde no estado de Goiás

Os cuidados com a pele contra a radiação solar, a fotoproteção, são essenciais devido aos altos índices de casos de câncer de pele no Brasil, incluindo o estado de Goiás. Assim, atividades de educação em saúde acerca do uso correto de filtros solares devem ser realizadas. Esse trabalho apresenta os resultados da Campanha Nacional de Fotoeducação (CNF), organizada pelo Fórum Nacional de Farmácias Universitárias (FNFU), realizada no estado de Goiás (CNF/FNFU-GO). O evento foi organizado e realizado por professores e estudantes do curso de Farmácia de cinco instituições de ensino superior, em novembro/2018, em Goiânia (GO). Os estudantes foram capacitados por meio de palestras educativas, abordando diferentes tópicos sobre medidas de fotoproteção e cuidados da pele, e elaboraram jogos educativos. Os locais das ações educativas foram estrategicamente escolhidos: região de alto fluxo de pessoas e/ou com atividades de lazer em ambiente aberto, e trabalhadores com frequente exposição à luz solar. A CNF/FNFU-GO orientou um público estimado de 650 pessoas, entre crianças e adultos, com olhar multidisciplinar, destacando a relação entre o cuidado farmacêutico, epidemiologia, farmacotécnica, cosmetologia e toxicologia. Um quiz com 10 perguntas foi desenvolvido, o que proporcionou uma interação e troca de conhecimentos com a comunidade, de forma extremamente receptiva. Os alunos relataram grande satisfação e aprendizado ao participar da CNF/FNFU-GO. A participação dos estudantes de Farmácia em experiências práticas de educação em saúde promoveu novos conhecimentos, habilidades humanizadas, valores e atitudes excepcionais com a comunidade, assim como o fornecimento de informações de qualidade à população.Palavras-chave: Aprendizagem por Competências; Fotoeducação; Interdisciplinaridade; Protetores Solares; Radiação Solar Pharmaceutical care in photoprotection: health education actions in the Goiás state Abstract: Skincare against solar radiation, namely photoprotection, is essential due to the high rates of skin cancer in Brazil, including the Goiás state. Thus, health education activities regarding the correct use of sunscreens should be carried out. This study shows the results of the National Campaign for Photo-Education (CNF), organized by the National Forum of University Pharmacies (FNFU), held in the Goiás state (CNF/FNFU-GO). The event was organized by Pharmacy undergraduate educators and students from five higher education institutions in November 2018 in Goiânia, GO, Brazil. The students were trained through educational lectures, which focused on different topics regarding measures of photoprotection and skincare, and educational games were elaborated. The places of educational actions were strategically chosen: a high flow of people and outdoor recreation, and workers with frequent solar exposure. The CNF/FNFU-GO oriented an estimated public of 650 people, among children and adults, with a multidisciplinary approach by highlighting the relationship between pharmaceutical care, epidemiology, pharmacotechnics, cosmetology, and toxicology. In addition, a ten-question quiz was developed, which provided an interaction and knowledge exchange with the community in a highly receptive way. The students reported great satisfaction and learning when participating in the CNF/FNFU-GO. The participation of Pharmacy undergraduate students in practical health education experiences promoted new knowledge, humanized skills, exceptional values, and attitudes with the community, as well as providing quality information to the population. Keywords: Competence Learning; Photoeducation; Interdisciplinarity; Sunscreens; Solar Radiation

Exploring the potential of digital teaching portfolios to support in/non-formal professional development for those who teach in Higher Education

It is broadly recognised that professional development (PD) to enhance academic practice amongst those who teach in Higher Education (HE) encompasses a range of approaches; while there is an established culture of accredited PD provision – particularly for early-career academics – literature points to a preference among more established faculty for non-accredited or informal PD activities such as workshops, projects, conferences, professional dialogue, experimental approaches or activities related to the scholarship of teaching and learning (Ashgar and Pilkington 2018; Kálmán et al. 2019; Spowart et al. 2017). The provision of accredited PD is now commonplace in the Irish context and many Irish HE Institutions offer programmes in academic practice at Graduate Certificate, Diploma or Masters Level (Maguire et al. 2017; Maguire et al. 2015). However, evidence also points to a long-standing culture of engagement in in- and non-formal PD activities among Irish HE teachers (Kenny et al. 2015). This has been recognised in the Irish National Professional Development Framework which is underpinned by an ‘acknowledgement of the spectrum of activities that could be considered under the umbrella of PD’ (National Forum 2016a; National Forum 2016b). Thus, a considerable amount of the professional learning that is undertaken to enhance academic practice takes place through experiential or work-based practices including communities of practice, conversations with colleagues and practice-based innovations (Knight et al. 2006; Nerantzi 2015; Warhurst 2008). Furthermore, there is a growing body of literature highlighting the use of portfolios to support academic professional learning activities and reflective practice in Higher Education (Costelloe et al. 2019; Hamilton 2018; Hoekstra and Crocker 2015; O'Farrell 2007; Pelger and Larsson 2018). Described as ‘a purposeful collection of evidence, consisting of descriptions, documents and examples of what is good teaching for the teacher’ (de Rijdt et al. 2006, p.1086), portfolios are being used in multiple ways to support PD: to provide evidence of a quality approach to professional development, to document teaching practices for the purposes of promotion, to showcase and reflect on academic practice and to provide evidence of engagement with PD activities. An eportfolio adds an extra dimension to the affordances of a more traditional portfolio through the potential inclusion of multimedia artefacts such as audio, video and text to capture, share and reflect on academic practice. Bearing in mind the Irish HE context and the recent introduction of the National Professional Development Framework, this paper will explore the potential of eportfolios – and specifically digital teaching or professional practice portfolios – to support, document and evidence the wealth of non-accredited and in/non-formal professional learning undertaken by HE teachers to enhance academic practice. Drawing on semi-structured interviews carried out with Irish HE teachers in three institutions in the Mid-West region, this paper will consider how digital teaching portfolios offer a space to capture, evidence, reflect on and share the wealth of practice-based and in/non-formal PD in which HE teachers engage.

Evaluating the effectiveness of a ‘Tobacco Monitor’ App in reporting violations of tobacco policy in the community

It is of interest to evaluate the effectiveness of the “Tobacco Monitor” app in reporting violations of tobacco policy in the community. Hence, a study was conducted amongst the first and second-year undergraduate students of health science colleges of a University. Students were asked to register complaints related to tobacco violations on the tobacco monitor app. Registered complaints were verified by the National Forum for Tobacco Eradication (NFTE) and descriptive statistics were used in reporting the results. A total of 208 complaints on tobacco violation were registered through the Tobacco Monitor app, 163 valid complaints were identified and 45 reports were found invalid. 163 verified valid complaints by NFTE were transferred to the Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) Cell, Maharashtra, India. It should be noted that anti-tobacco laws and national policies help to curb the menace of the tobacco epidemic to an extent. However, robust reporting and sustainable enforcement measures are required in implementing tobacco legislation effectively. We also report that youth are comfortable in using the Tobacco Monitor app for reporting violations on tobacco.

Evaluating the effectiveness of a ‘Tobacco Monitor’ App in reporting violations of tobacco policy in the community

It is of interest to evaluate the effectiveness of the “Tobacco Monitor” app in reporting violations of tobacco policy in the community. Hence, a study was conducted amongst the first and second-year undergraduate students of health science colleges of a University. Students were asked to register complaints related to tobacco violations on the tobacco monitor app. Registered complaints were verified by the National Forum for Tobacco Eradication (NFTE) and descriptive statistics were used in reporting the results. A total of 208 complaints on tobacco violation were registered through the Tobacco Monitor app, 163 valid complaints were identified and 45 reports were found invalid. 163 verified valid complaints by NFTE were transferred to the Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) Cell, Maharashtra, India. It should be noted that anti-tobacco laws and national policies help to curb the menace of the tobacco epidemic to an extent. However, robust reporting and sustainable enforcement measures are required in implementing tobacco legislation effectively. We also report that youth are comfortable in using the Tobacco Monitor app for reporting violations on tobacco.