SYDNEY — A Cape Breton University student's undergrad thesis aims to inspire a love of bees and promote open access to education textbooks.
Published on CBU's Pressbooks site, which was made possible through Council of Atlantic University Libraries funding, Hannah Kosick's book also marks the first time a student's work has been published on the site since professors are the usual authors of textbooks.
Kosick said her book, "Bumble Bees of Unama'ki: A Guide to Becoming a Buzzing Naturalist," is written for "youth and the young at heart," and she hopes it will inspire people to become citizen scientists, exploring on their own and posting findings on sites like iNaturalist and to become environmental conservationists.
"There are lots of puns everywhere in the book. I thought it would be a fun way to address (the subject matter) and to engage readers," said the 22-year-old bachelor of arts and science honours student.
Published online as part of Cape Breton University's open textbook platform, the book is interactive with links to other sites like iNaturalist and quizzes about bee anatomy, lifecycle and species.
Kosick hopes it will inspire more people to be citizen scientists, examining nature around them and documenting findings on sites like iNaturalist and that more people will become advocates for bee conservation.
"You can download a copy of the book to print off but it's meant to be used online. It's designed that way and is better in the electronic format," said Kosick, who credits her parents for inspiring her passion for environmental conservation.
"Also, it's better for the environment to use the digital form."
FREE TEXTBOOKS
"Bumble Bees of Unama'ki" is Kosick's thesis and is licensed internationally.
This licence lets others distribute, remix, tweak and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit the author for the original creation.
Powered by Pressbooks, it is part of CBU's catalogue that currently has 15 titles. Kosick's is one of three published by CBU and hopes are to expand in this area with grant funding.
However, there are a number of other textbooks offered and librarian Jasmine Hopper said over the past two terms the CBU student body saved $250,000 not having to buy them.
"Our program here is to support local created (open educational resources), or adapting available OER," Hooper said, using what geology professor Jason Loxton is doing as an example.
Along with using an open geology book from the University of Saskatchewan, Loxton is adding information about geology in Atlantic Canada to it.
"Right now, the libraries across (Council of Atlantic University Libraries) funded the basic licence with Pressbooks, which I think is $35,000," she said.
"Ideally, we could get funding like B.C. (which was $3.26 million announced in April 2019)," said Hooper, who is on a committee lobbying for more funding for open educational resource expansion.
She said they want government funding of about $150,000 a year for staffing and a fuller pressbooks service.
FUTURE OF LEARNING
Kosick, who is graduating this year and plans to take on a master's degree, believes open textbook learning is here to stay and extremely beneficial to students.
"The best part about Pressbooks is it's a way for every university in Atlantic Canada to come together (providing educational resources for students)," she said.
"I've spent so much money on textbooks it's nice to see the university's moving to Pressbook. That helps students so much — and it's such a different way of learning. It's the future really."
Kosick's "Bumble Bees of Unama'ki" can be found at https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/bumblebees/ .
Bees: Fast Facts
-
Amu is the Mi'kmaq word for bumble bee
-
Bees have been on earth for 130 million years
-
Rarely seen in Cape Breton: Yellow-bandit
-
Not seen in decades: Gypsy Cuckoo
-
Most common: Tricoloured Bumble Bee
-
Tricolours have a black arrow between their wings
-
Red-winged have a black oval between their wings
-
250 known bumble bee species globally
