His passion for science will be more evident than usual at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Wagga Wagga on Wednesday 21 March when Professor Nick Klomp, Dean of the Faculty of Science and a regular science commentator on ABC Radio in NSW, delivers his Science@CSU Roadshow. Commencing at 4pm, the public presentation will explore developments in science at CSU including new courses, current and future research collaborations, new international staff appointments and multi-million dollar investments in research and training facilities. “The Faculty of Science at Charles Sturt University 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,” said Professor Klomp. “We are involved in teaching and research in a variety of science and health disciplines including veterinary science, dentistry, nursing, environmental studies, forensic biotechnology, wine science, agriculture, and allied health.”  Science@CSU is open to CSU staff and students, industry and the general public. 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) will be well represented when the ‘new look’ Town and Gown Procession makes its way through the heart of Wagga Wagga on Thursday 29 March. The colourful annual parade has been expanded to celebrate the city’s role as a centre for education and training in inland Australia. Representatives from local schools, other education providers, and the Australian Defence Force will join with CSU staff in the procession. Starting at 5pm, the procession down Baylis Street will end at the Victory Memorial Gardens with an educational expo from 5.30pm. Read more on CSU News here.

Co-founder of the non-profit peacemaking educational company, Preaching Peace, Mr Michael Hardin, will visit Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Wagga Wagga during his trip to Australia. A theologian and author from the USA, Mr Hardin is a member of the Akron Mennonite Church in Pennsylvania. He brings his message about a peaceful God to CSU when he delivers the next Saint Martin's College Occasional Seminar from 4pm on Monday 2 April in the Fairfax Centre, building 382, CSU in Wagga Wagga. His seminar, titled Nonviolent Atonement, is free and open to the public. As executive director of Preaching Peace, Mr Hardin is also affiliated with the Colloquium on Violence and Religion. Saint Martin’s College is a residential university college run by the Anglican Church. It is located at CSU in Wagga Wagga.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) students will give a modern twist to bible stories when the University Theatre Ensemble (UTE) presents The Mystery Plays from Tuesday 27 March. Lecturer with the School of Communication and Creative Industries at CSU in Wagga Wagga, Mr John Saunders, said mystery plays were the beginnings of popular theatre, responding to the primitive desire of people to ‘act out’  the stories of their lives. “From rage to revelation to redemption, this is a tell-all production, where you will catch a contemporary version of past events,” he said. “Like the medieval mystery plays, this production is outside the theatre.”  The stories will be performed in a variety of locations around the University’s Performing Arts complex in Wagga Wagga, with a short walk between each site. Directed by Mr Saunders, with mask and movement direction by Mr Thomas Papathanassiou, the short plays will be performed by second year Bachelor of Arts (Acting for Screen and Stage) students. Design is by students studying a Bachelor of Arts (Design for Theatre and Television).

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.”

The rising cost of healthy food, the relatively low cost of food high in sugar, fat and salt, and the relationship between the two and the rise in obesity in Australia, will be discussed during a free public lecture in Wagga Wagga on Thursday 19 April. Co-hosted by Charles Sturt University (CSU) and Wagga Wagga City Council, the lecture will be delivered by public health nutritionist and academic Dr Catherine Burns from Deakin University. Dr Burns is a Senior Research Fellow in the University’s WHO Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention. In this position, Dr Burns has developed a research program centred on food security.  Her lecture, Is the Cost of Food Making Us Obese? will propose changes in public policy and practice to improve access to healthy food and to tackle obesity. The lecture will be held from 6pm in the Council Meeting Room, Civic Centre, Baylis Street in Wagga Wagga.

Two veterinary science students at Charles Sturt University (CSU) have been awarded prestigious cattle industry scholarships. Ms Katherine Snell, from Merrigum in northern Victoria and Ms Tahlia Ling from Forest in Tasmania have each won a $10 000 scholarship from export meat processor HW Greenham and Sons to encourage future agricultural leaders.  Ms Snell and Ms Ling are studying a Bachelor of Veterinary Biology/ Bachelor of Veterinary Science through the School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences at CSU in Wagga Wagga. Head of School, Professor Nick Sangster has praised their achievements.  “Ms Snell and Ms Ling are good examples of the many Charles Sturt University students who aspire to contribute to local industries,” he said. “Charles Sturt University is a magnet for accomplished young people from across the country with production animal skills.” Now in her final year of study, Ms Snell says the scholarship will help kick start her career. “I plan to travel overseas and see first-hand the issues faced by dairy farmers and their advisors on an international scale,” she said.

A social work academic from the United Kingdom is the guest lecturer at residential schools at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Wagga Wagga on Monday 16 April. The visit by Professor Pamela Trevithick, from Buckinghamshire New University, is being hosted by Professor of Social Work, Manohar Pawar, of the CSU School of Humanities and Social Sciences in Wagga Wagga. “Professor Trevithick is an entertaining and provocative speaker and is well known in the UK and internationally for her forthright views on the purpose of social work and the ways in which social work contributes to a better society,” Professor Pawar said. “She has interesting and useful views on the role of social work in capitalist societies generally, and clear strategies for bringing change both at individual and societal levels. Professor Trevithick has visited a number of Australian universities to discuss social work practice skills with students, practitioners and educators.” While lecturing at a residential school, Professor Trevithick will talk to community and academic social workers along with students about the skills and knowledge needed in social work.