A passion to assess the impact of climate change on some of the world’s driest places has attracted Dr Antonio Castro from his native Spain to Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Albury-Wodonga for the past six months. A visiting research fellow with CSU’s Institute for Land, Water and Society (ILWS), Dr Castro is assessing the possible impacts of global climate change on Spain, especially the dry south-eastern Andalusia region. He was drawn to Australia to investigate Associate Professor Gary Luck’s major project on assessing ecosystem services, those services provided by the natural environment that enhance the man-made environment, such as carbon storage, timber production, pest control, flower pollination and biodiversity conservation. He hopes to incorporate the skills and knowledge he has developed with Professor Luck into his own research. Dr Castro said he was impressed with the Institute, having never seen ecological, social and cultural views coming together in one institution. “Albury is also a very comfortable city and Australians are very friendly,” Dr Castro said.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) Professor of Applied Ecology Geoff Gurr will address one of the world’s most urgent challenges when he delivers the Poggendorff Lecture for 2013 as part of National Science Week. The biennial lecture is an initiative of the Royal Society of NSW in honour of Walter Hans George Poggendorff, the eminent Australian agriculturalist and member of the society, and covers agriculture in a broad sense. Professor Gurr, from CSU in Orange, will address the topic ‘Biodiversity and the future of agriculture’. “One of the greatest challenges the world is facing right now is how we plan to feed the estimated population of 9 billion by 2050,” he said. “Not only do we have to meet that challenge, we have to do it in the face of declining availability of good-quality land and water, and the need to preserve biodiversity to provide critical ecosystem services.” Professor Gurr will draw on his international research program to explain how biodiversity can be harnessed to provide effective pest suppression and illustrate how on-farm biodiversity can advantage growers and the wider community.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Dubbo will welcome approximately 155 new students when Orientation Week begins on Tuesday 26 February before the start of the 2013 academic year the following Monday. Dr Bev Moriarty, the Head of Campus at CSU in Dubbo, said, “On behalf of students and staff I extend a very warm welcome to all our new students. We are very excited to be part of this next very important part of their lives and I hope they find the campus to be very friendly. There are also many organisations and individuals in the community who wish them well and look forward to them completing their studies successfully. I trust they will enjoy being part of the University community and find their own special way of contributing to it as they take their journey with friends and colleagues.” There will be an official welcome at 11am Tuesday 26 in the campus courtyard, followed by a barbeque, with a general meet and greet for students at 6pm. Information sessions for students in the faculties of Arts, Business, Education and Science will continue daily for the rest of the week, and there will be social events in the evenings.

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) 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.

Two Charles Sturt University (CSU) scientists will be guest presenters at the ABC’s ‘Science at the Club’ informal forum at Dubbo RSL Club on Thursday 14 March where participants can ask questions and express their views on a range of scientific topics. Professor Heather Cavanagh, Acting Executive Dean of the CSU Faculty of Science, and Dr Nigel Urwin, senior lecturer in genetics and gene technologies in the CSU School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, will address the topic, ‘What are your fears and hopes about new directions in biotechnology and nanotechnology?’. Professor Cavanagh has a background in microbiology and medical science including biotech and virology, and Dr Urwin has expertise in plant molecular biology, plant/animal biotechnology, and plant breeding. “Science underpins modern society and is changing our world at an incredible rate,” Professor Cavanagh said. “The very near future will be filled with leaps in technology that will change every aspect of our everyday lives, making a world that, to us, will be like a science fiction movie. I’m looking forward to the opportunity to discuss the relevance and impact of science more broadly, as well as how science at Charles Sturt University contributes to our regional communities, the nation and the world.”

High school students in the NSW Mid-North Coast, central and southern NSW and regional Victoria can learn vital life skills while running a simulated business in an online game to be hosted by Charles Sturt University’s Faculty of Business. The GameOn! organisers at CSU are now calling for teams of Years 10 and 11 students from high schools around regional NSW and Victoria to participate in the game in 2013. The game was first staged in 2012. “The student teams will make vital business decisions about marketing, human resources, operations and finance for an online, simulated business. Apart from developing problem-solving skills in their businesses, GameOn allows students to develop important life skills such as leadership, group work, critical thinking, negotiation and time management,” said GameOn coordinator Dr Abbey Dwivedi.  Teams will need to be nominated by the extended deadline of Friday 5 April, with eight rounds of ‘decisions’ to be made during the year and winning teams due to be announced in September 2013.

Internationally renowned early childhood researcher, Professor Adam Winsler, from George Mason University in the USA, will deliver two public lectures at Charles Sturt University in Dubbo on April 23 and 24. The first lecture, Private speech, Scaffolding, and Self-Regulation in typical children and Children with ADHD and/or Autism, will examine the role of children’s ‘self talk’ in the development of self-regulation. “Children often talk to themselves during play or problem solving situations,” Professor Winsler said. “Such private speech is thought to play an important role in the development of self-regulation and in the transfer of autonomy/responsibility from others (teachers, parents) to the self.” The second lecture will examine Long-term associations between children's school readiness and later outcomes in school, and long-term effects of a culturally sensitive preschool literacy intervention. Professor Winsler’s research has been represented in more than 80 publications and he is the author of several books on early childhood education and development.

A new online resource for early childhood teachers in rural and remote areas will be presented to the Mayor of Dubbo, Councillor Mathew Dickerson, this Thursday 8 December. Known as teacher-ec, the resource was recently launched as part of the Early Childhood Education Workforce Capacity Project (ECEWC). Teacher-ec kits aim to make a valuable contribution to the education of new teachers. Charles Sturt University (CSU) lecturer, Dr Alison Lord, managed the ECEWC project that developed these online resources in line with the federal government’s commitment to ensure every child in Australia has access to quality childcare. “The response to the kits has been overwhelmingly positive,” said Dr Lord. “The kits have given regional and remote educators additional tools to support their continued studies while we have also had several enquiries from metropolitan areas who are interested in using the resources.”