Gordon G. C. Robinson
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Director's Report
Gordon G. C. Robinson |
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1993 was perhaps the most successful year for the University Field Station in recent history. Overall use of the facility was increased by 18% over the previous year and by 40% over the average use during the past eight years. Generated income was the highest in the history of the Station. Before getting into the body of this report, I would like to acknowledge with gratitude the various sources of this success. The administration of the day to day activities of the Station, the maintenance and security of the physical plant and property, the provision of comfortable accommodation and excellent cuisine, and the careful attention to the seemingly increasing masses of paperwork requires a particularly dedicated and flexible staff, and the Field Station is fortunate to have such. I would like to thank them all for their efforts, and I would also like to thank the various family members of staff, whose entirely voluntary participation in the operation of the Field Station is much appreciated. It sometimes seems that we tend to neglect the fact that the Field Station is not an 8:30 to 4:30, five-days-a-week operation. Rather it is a 24 hour-a-day, 365 days-a-year operation; this requires considerable dedication. The support of the University through the Faculty of Science, the Faculty of Science Endowment Fund and Physical Plant is gratefully acknowledged, as is the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada for the provision of an Infrastructure Grant. The support of the Friends of the Field Station is also gratefully acknowledged. The first executive of that support organization (Nora Losey, Richard Orlandini, Linda Chartier, Barbara Lindsay, Darlene Chimka, Jorunn Hansen and Terri Roy) is to be congratulated for getting the organization off the ground as an effective self-sustaining fund-raising participatory group. The cooperation of our neighbours at the Portage la Prairie Country Club and the Delta Waterfowl and Wetlands Research Station, the Atmospheric Environment Service of Environment Canada, The Manitoba Department of Natural Resources and the merchants, contractors and interested residents of Portage la Prairie should all be acknowledged with sincere thanks. At the root of our successes are, of course, the Station users - the researchers, the graduate students, the undergraduates, their instructors, the student assistants and the myriad of others who use the Station for one reason or another throughout the year. Of these I would particularly acknowledge the dedication of Spencer Sealy, Gordon Goldsborough, Norman Kenkel, Brenda Hann, Lisle Gibbs, Mark Abrahams, James Briskie, Keith Hobson, Tom Booth, Jack Gee, Maria Zbigniewicz and Isobel Waters. I should also like to thank those who supported the Field Station through monetary gifts, and I gratefully acknowledge the ongoing support of our library by the Stevens and Lindquist families through their additions to the Todd Stevens Memorial Collection. Congratulations are due to Marlene Gifford upon the successful completion of her M.Sc. degree. I sincerely thank Gordon Goldsborough for his editorial work on this report, and indeed for all of his electronic wizardry.
For the body of this report I would like to re-state some of the overall objectives and goals of the Field Station, report the statistics on station use, and provide some analysis of Station activities in the areas of Research, Teaching and Service.
The principle research objective of the Field Station is to facilitate, accommodate and equip field-oriented research projects of senior undergraduates, graduate students and faculty from the University of Manitoba and other institutions. The provision of a supportive data base (consisting of meteorological, water-level and water chemistry information) is a component of this objective. An on-going goal is to stimulate integrated and cooperative research initiatives in the strategically important wetland environment that comprises most of the Field Station property. The promotion and communication of research conducted at the Station is facilitated by the publication of an annual Research Pamphlet and a formal ISSN-numbered Annual Report, but also by hosting an Annual Public Seminar on current Station research. It is clear that the promotion of research at the Station will have to take a more pro-active approach to include the actual generation of at least some funding (from within the University, from Granting Agencies and through the Friends of the Field Station).
The primary teaching objective is to solicit, encourage and facilitate the presentation of field-oriented credit courses at the Field Station. This is done by simple solicitation of the participation of Departments and coordination through Continuing Education. It is also done by the provision of high quality infrastructural support which includes functional and well equipped teaching laboratories, modern and functional equipment to meet the needs of a variety of courses, annotated and accessible reference collections of local biota, study and library facilities, comfortable accommodation, and support personnel. A related goal is to provide opportunity and some small financial assistance to a small number of young people in the form of "apprenticeships" in field teaching and research methods. An ancillary objective is the provision of a conducive environment for specialized seminars, conferences and workshops for the University of Manitoba, but also for other constituencies.
Service objectives are in the form of outreach activities in four areas: (1) the provision of instructional facilities, staff and formal programs for school classes, (2) the provision of environmentally oriented residential workshops to the community at large, (3) the provision of a public seminar series during the summer months, and (4) the provision of Elderhostel residential courses. An ancillary service-related goal is to offer the Field Station facilities to various "educational" groups at times when the Station is not fully occupied by the above. Whereas this is primarily a fund raising activity to subsidize the above activities, it does at the same time offer a service to the public. The Station also offers the use of its facilities to bona fide members of the organization of Friends of the Field Station.
The ideal balance of the teaching, research and service activities of the Field Station is primarily determined by the seasons. Research and teaching activities are almost exclusively restricted to the period from May 1 to October 31, with most service activities occurring in the remaining six months of the year. The net result of this is that a balance of 25% research, 25% teaching and 50% service would appear to be ideal, and particularly so if the fund-generating aspect of the service component can adequately subsidize the teaching and research functions.
The following table summarizes the overall use of the University Field Station since 1985:
Criteria that can be used to assess the Field Station's research activity are: (1) The number of projects undertaken in a single year, (2) the number of publications that have arisen in a single year from work conducted at the Field Station, (3) The number of theses completed in a single year that have emanated from work conducted at the Field Station, and (4) the user days/year that can be attributed to research activity. Ancillary measures which may also be used are (5) NSERC infrastructural funding, (6) presence/absence of research conferences/workshops in any single year, and (7) the presence/absence of collaborative integrated research undertakings in any year. Good performance would be considered to be numbers greater than the running average for criteria 1-4, and presence of activities numbered 5-7.
The number of projects conducted in the past period was 17 (mean=15); the number of publications was 9 (mean=13); the number of theses completed was 1 (mean=3); and the number of user days associated with research activity was 1,067 (mean=1,374). $25,000 was provided in the form of an NSERC Infrastructure Grant. This was the last installment of a three-year grant. $25,000 per year for each of the next three years was, however, obtained in the most recent NSERC competition. The 12th North American Diatom Symposium was hosted by the Field Station in the early fall of 1993. The symposium was generally considered by the participants to have been the best yet. Although no distinctly collaborative enterprises were undertaken, a considerable effort was expended by Field Station users in the preparation of a re-submission of a Tri-Council Eco-Research proposal, the results of which are as yet unknown.
Although in most categories performance was better than in the previous period it still remains in most categories below an eight year running average. It is difficult to know why this should be, although it is very likely that increased difficulty in acquiring research funds, diminished graduate enrollments and a very low turnover rate of faculty members may all contribute to the situation. One difference between this period and the previous one was that funds were obtained from the Faculty of Science to support three co-operative education work terms for environmental science students at the Field Station. This certainly did permit the commencement of two research projects that would not otherwise have taken place.
For the Field Station, assessment can be based on the number of courses offered and the user days associated with teaching each year, with additional assessment being available from specific user evaluation forms.
I suspect that the maximum number of courses that could be accommodated during a single season at the Field Station is six 3CH courses, and a maximum number of user days would be in the order of 2,000. A good performance would be three courses and 1,000 user days.
In 1993 four courses and parts of three others were conducted at the Field Station, generating a total of 994 user days. This represents an increase of one course over the previous year but a decrease of some 9.3% in user days. The number of students registering for field courses was therefore somewhat decreased over the previous year. This may, however, be a single year anomaly for the use (in terms of user days) was 47% greater than the eight year mean for the Station. Nonetheless, under-utilization still prevails to a degree. An encouraging aspect of 1993 was, however, the fact that Continuing Education seemed a great deal more receptive to the concept that "break-even" enrollments in field courses are often unrealistic, and in fact "break-even" enrollments are generally too high for effective field instruction. There does still remain a difficulty in the supply of teaching assistants for field courses. Field courses clearly, by their very nature, require TA's for lesser numbers of students than do other courses, but as it presently stands the enrollments in field courses do not generally meet the universal formula for the provision of TA's.
In 1993-94 some significant strides were made in the provision of equipment. This was made possible by capital equipment funds from the Faculty and also from the Endowment Fund. The Field Station now has a rather well equipped Macintosh/IBM microcomputer facility, enhanced night-vision equipment for the study of nocturnal behavior and global positioning systems for the exact location of sites. Two inshore boats with motors were purchased and the bicycle fleet will be increased by the beginning of the next season.
Student evaluations of the facility were distinctly positive, with the exception of the recurring criticism of the inadequacy of the teaching facility, study space and library access.
Principal service activities include the provision of instructional facilities and programs for school classes, provision of environmentally oriented residential workshops, and the delivery of a public seminar program.
Methods of assessment available are annual user days associated with school activities and with seminars, workshops and other miscellaneous Station activities. These can be compared with running averages, and any value equal to or greater than the running average may be interpreted as being indicative of good performance. Unfortunately our data base does not permit distinction between seminars, workshops and other miscellaneous activities.
For this period, user days associated with school activities were 1,317 (mean=675), and user days associated with other activities were 2,241 (mean=1,309). My interpretation of these numbers is that the Field Station is doing exceptionally well in the area of Service. Activity in our school program increased by 31% over the previous period. Additional school activities over the past year included "Ecoscope", a three day exploration and investigation of the Marsh sponsored by the Winnipeg Adult Education Centre, and a two day visit from the Young Scientists of Canada from Sarnia. Six public seminars were presented at the Station and five residential workshops were conducted. A new and successful venture was the hosting of two Elderhostel courses during the year. The Station also hosted an extremely successful "Day at the Marsh" for Friends of the Field Station.