Being able to modify a textbook so that it better matched our courses was the next logical step.<\/p>\r\n \r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nHere is a picture I took at the start of the semester in September 2016. \u00a0 This bulletin board is located outside Douglas College's bookstore. \u00a0 Students who clearly did not need their old textbooks, or who needed the money to buy new ones, put up posters in an attempt to sell their old books.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_25\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"300\"] Open textbooks became a cause of mine, Jennifer Kirkey,\u00a0 as I found more and more of my students could not afford the “required” textbook.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n BCcampus organized an Open Textbook Summit in 2015 and the keynote speaker, Rajiv Jhangiani from Kwantlen Polytechnic University was so inspiring that I became a BCcampus Faculty Fellow as an Advocate for Open Textbooks in 2016. \u00a0I do wish to thank BCcampus for their work with open educational resources such as this textbook, and for the opportunities they have given me. \u00a0 \u00a0You can learn more about them by visiting \u00a0 \u00a0https:\/\/bccampus.ca\/<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Books](\"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/scienceandtechpddaytest\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/408\/2018\/04\/corkboard-posters-books-for-sale-300x225.jpg\")
Books for sale outside the Douglas College Bookstore Photo Credit: Jennifer Kirkey 2106 CC0[\/caption]\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nWho Am I and How Did I get here?<\/strong>\r\n\r\nLooking up at the sky as a child, I was fascinated by the stars. \u00a0 The local library supplied a book on the constellations, and that led to a book explaining why the stars were different colours, and that led to a book on physics. \u00a0 \u00a0I kept asking questions and that led me to a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada and then to a Master's degree in Physics from Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.\r\n\r\nI have been working at Douglas College in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada for more than twenty-five years. \u00a0 I teach a first year course in astronomy to liberal arts majors and physics to people whose background is no physics in high school to those who want to be engineers. \u00a0I also teach in a post-graduate program for Elementary School Teachers.\r\n\r\nI volunteer with our local science centre, Science World at Telus World of Science in Vancouver, B.C., doing outreach visits to elementary and secondary schools, as well as being active with the local branch of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.","rendered":"![\"Jennifer](\"https:\/\/pressbooks.bccampus.ca\/scienceandtechpddaytest\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/408\/2018\/04\/0-jennifer-kirkey-january-2015-burnaby-now-copy-4-300x247.jpg\")