TeachingCity Oshawa releases Annual Snapshot highlighting local collaborative projects

The City of Oshawa and its education and research partners – Durham College, Ontario Tech University, Trent University Durham GTA, and the University of Toronto’s Department of Civil and Mineral Engineering – are pleased to announce that the TeachingCity Oshawa 2023/2024 Annual Snapshot, detailing accomplishments from the partnership’s seventh year, is now available online.

Notable applied research, experiential learning and curriculum-based projects featured in the Annual Snapshot include:

• Celebrating Oshawa’s Centennial - Durham College contributed to two Centennial projects in 2024, creating a collaborative opportunity for local students to honour and celebrate Oshawa’s history.  A temporary public art installation celebrating Oshawa was created by Fine Art students and is proudly displayed on the windows of 1 Mary Street North. In honour of International Women’s Day, Journalism students created a series of story maps spotlighting Oshawa’s trailblazing women - both past and present. For more information about Oshawa’s Centennial Celebrations, please visit: www.oshawa.ca/centennial.
• Students Contribute towards an Inclusive Community – Ontario Tech University students have been busy working with City staff on a variety of projects that contribute to making Oshawa a more inclusive city. Social Science and Humanities students enrolled in the Issues in Diversity course developed diversity and equity lenses to conduct evaluations of a variety of City locations, policies, programs, recruitment and communications, and make recommendations. Health Science students from the Perspectives in Aging course researched how older adults attain local community information. The class also considered demographic data and the City’s Age Friendly Strategy, and created a series of infographic summaries with recommendations the City could implement to ensure older adults can access information about community programs and services.
• Dungeons, Dragons, and Neurodiversity – John Smith, a student from Trent University Durham GTA’s Department of Child and Youth Studies piloted a new Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) Club at the Oshawa Civic Recreation Complex. This unique programming provides neurodiverse youth with an opportunity to collaborate with their peers, socialize, and “slay dragons” to achieve collective goals. The unique program helped foster meaningful friendships for neurodiverse youth in the Oshawa community.
• Student Placements – The City provided more than 38 work-integrated learning opportunities for TeachingCity students through placement, practicum or co-op opportunities. Students developed real-life applied skills while bringing new ideas and fresh perspectives to City Departments to help support the achievement of City initiatives.

About TeachingCity

TeachingCity brings together the City of Oshawa and its education and research partners – Durham College, Ontario Tech University, Trent University Durham GTA and the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering.

The partners address Oshawa’s urban issues through innovation, collaboration, applied research and shared experiential learning opportunities with the aim to position Oshawa as a local, national and global community of urban research and learning.

Learn more about TeachingCity at teachingcityoshawa.ca and follow #OshTeachingCity on Twitter and Instagram.

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