Charles Sturt University (CSU) researchers representing the areas of emergency management, community psychology, and economics, will host a meeting in Molong on Wednesday 8 February to discuss community preparedness for flooding, and their expectations relating to warnings, response, and recovery. Mr Ian Manock, lecturer in emergency management at the CSU Australian Graduate School of Policing said the meeting follows a postal survey distributed to residents in early January which sought responses to questions about community preparedness and expectations related to flooding in the Molong area. “This is part of a broader research project being conducted by the University which aims to analyse how a number of rural communities in both Australia and Bangladesh prepare for and react to flooding,” Mr Manock said. “Although different in terms of culture, economy, and size, the communities share similarities in that they are all exposed to flooding on a regular basis, and are all located outside major urban areas. We aim to use the experiences of the communities to identify strategies that can improve community preparedness, enable government agencies to better understand community expectations, and hopefully reduce the impact of future flooding on these rural and semi-isolated communities.” The community meeting is at 7pm Wednesday 8 February in the Molong Community Hall.

Funds raised at an art auction to be held at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Dubbo on Thursday 9 February will help establish mobile ear clinics for children in the region. “The Earbuses are specially modified buses which travel to selected primary schools, kindergartens and child care centres, initially between Dubbo and Bourke, to provide a free hearing and ear screening service for all children who are at risk of middle ear problems,” said service coordinator Ms Rowena Galway. “We are currently working on getting one bus up and running. Hopefully, it will prove to be a useful resource, and more will come in the future. With more than 50 original works by artists from Dubbo, Narromine, Gilgandra, Sydney, Uralla, and Kiama, the inaugural Hear Our Heart art auction has the potential to become a favourite on the Dubbo cultural calendar. Local artists are always keen to help those less fortunate, and with ear health being a major issue in the region, everyone is invited to support the cause and buy a beautiful painting in the process.” Guests will be able to enjoy wine and cheese tasting at the art auction.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) Honours student, James Bekkema, has won an Apple University Consortium Scholarship and will now attend The Apple Worldwide Developers Conference to be held in San Francisco in August. Sue Moffatt, Head of CSU’s School of Information Technology, describes James as “one smart cookie”, saying the highly sought-after scholarship was won in a competitive national competition between 36 Australian universities. She says James is "an exceptional student who has done much of the Mac development work on his own initiative". The conference includes presentations, dinners, a tour of the US Apple Campus and a keynote speech by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple. “I’m really looking forward to ‘Student Sunday’. I’m currently an Honours student, and this could well be my last year of University, so I'll be asking Apple computer representatives what they are looking for in a university student,” said Mr Bekkema.

The first group of Aboriginal students enrolled in the new Teacher in Community program at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Dubbo will attend an introductory residential school starting on Monday 27 February. Ms Maria Bennet, lecturer at the CSU School of Teacher Education in Dubbo, said the students enrolled in the four-year mainstream Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood and Primary) will be on campus for their first residential school from Monday 27 February to Friday 2 March, inclusive. “My colleagues, Professor Jo-Anne Reid who devised the program, and project officer Ms Kathryn Walford, and I are delighted with the strong interest in and support for this program from communities across western NSW,” Ms Bennet said. “We look forward to welcoming the three male and 16 female students who come from rural and remote locations in NSW: Dubbo, Wagga Wagga, Gilgandra, Walgett, Wilcannia, Bourke, Darlington Point, Brewarrina, Narrabri, Broken Hill, and Dareton. As part of their first orientation program, the students will attend on campus classes and be introduced to the technology and systems that will then support them to continue to study in their communities.” Three other residential schools are scheduled for 23 April, 9 July and 3 September. The pilot project is funded by the Higher Education Participation and Partnership Program (HEPPP) of the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.

Is there such a thing as a balanced assessment of the “Intelligent Design -Creation Science” controversy? Professor David Goldney from Charles Sturt University (CSU) believes so. The well-known scientist and environmental consultant, who has lived and worked in the Bathurst community since 1972, is a committed Christian and an Adjunct Professor at CSU. Professor Goldney estimates almost half the world’s scientists are Christian on some level, but still accept the theory of evolution, including himself. “While I’m a Christian, I’m committed to Darwinian evolution and I think the ‘Intelligent Design’ argument is way off track. There’s a continuum of people, from ‘flat earthers’ to creation scientists, with the view that evolution leads only to atheism and proves there is no God. Somewhere in there might be some middle ground.” Three public lectures are planned for June, where Professor Goldney will “go through the range of creation stories that a Christian might look at and still remain an honest scientist with integrity and accept faith”.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Dubbo and Orange will come alive with science when the Science@CSU comes to town next week. The Faculty of Science at CSU is among the largest and most diverse science faculties in Australasia, with approximately 9 000 students and hundreds of staff in seven schools across six campuses. The Faculty teaches and conducts research in a variety of science and health disciplines including veterinary science, dentistry, nursing, environmental studies, forensic biotechnology, wine science, agriculture, and allied health. Dean of the Faculty of Science, Professor Nick Klomp, will present a summary of some of the exciting initiatives currently planned or being implemented in the various science disciplines at CSU, including new courses, current and future collaborations in research, and professional training made possible because of new international staff appointments and multi-million dollar investments in research and training facilities across CSU campuses. Science@CSU will visit the Dubbo Campus from 4pm to 5pm on Monday 19 March and the Orange Campus on Tuesday 20 March. Read more about Science@CSU here.

Starting in Bathurst on Thursday 29 March, the Charles Sturt University (CSU) Division of Learning and Teaching Services will hold forums on a number of its campuses for academics to discuss developments in online and mobile learning and teaching at the University. Forums facilitator, Associate Professor Philip Uys, the Director of Strategic Learning and Teaching Innovation in the CSU Division of Learning and Teaching Services, said, “The continued evolution of quality in learning and teaching at Charles Sturt University, and the growing expectations of our students for appropriate technology responses, requires the University’s staff to skilfully use an ever-growing set of internal and external educational technologies. Charles Sturt University is increasing its digital, mobile and paperless learning and teaching, which pose challenges for strategists of these new technologies, and for academics using them. It will be good to share information about education technology developments at the University and have some in-depth conversations about why these changes are occurring. We will explore what the learning and teaching potential of the respective educational technologies is, and what issues we are facing.”

Charles Sturt University (CSU) is encouraging schools from across NSW and Victoria to compete in a new online business simulation competition to invigorate student engagement in their business studies. The CSU Faculty of Business is introducing to schools CSU Business - Game On, a ‘virtual’ business competition where Year 11 students form teams and play for the opportunity to win regional prizes of up to $1 000 or the major prize of $2 500. “Participating student teams will engage in the GoVenture Any Business simulation game that is hosted and funded by Charles Sturt University,” explains Dr Abhishek Dwivedi, a lecturer in the School of Management and Marketing. “It allows students to build and operate their own ‘virtual’ business in a simulated market environment.”

A public lecture at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Orange will shed light on the nature of the trade-offs involved in the proposed transfer of water to the environment in the Murray Darling Basin. Professor Kevin Parton a lecturer and researcher at the CSU School of Marketing and Management, is an expert commentator on the economic and social effects of the water transfer. His presentation is at 6pm Friday 20 April, and he believes there will need to be trade-offs between economic, social and environmental objectives when increasing the flows of water in the Murray-Darling system, which is Australia’s largest river system. “The Murray-Darling Basin Authority has proposed to transfer 2 750 gigalitres per year from irrigation to environmental flows,” he said. “Many farmers consider the costs of even the smallest transfer to be prohibitive, while many conservationists regard anything less than 4 000 gigalitres per year as insufficient to capture any significant environmental benefits.” Professor Parton will consider a number of findings from preliminary research in this controversial topic, including the costs to irrigation farmers, the amounts of environmental water needed, gains for Murray-Darling communities from the plan, and the effects on losers from the plan.