Eight Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Ontario teacher education students arrive in Wagga Wagga and Albury this week to work in local schools. The Canadian students will then continue their antipodean travels before returning to Ontario for their graduations in June. This will be the second visit from Bachelor of Educational Studies (Primary Teaching) students from CSU in Ontario. Last year seven CSU in Ontario students spent time in Australia, where they got up close and personal with some native animals at Dubbo’s Western Plain Zoo and described the countryside as “very rural and very flat. It’s not desert but there’s not much green. It’s brown and dusty.” One student travelling to Australia this week, Ruth Markuc said, “I've always wanted to come to Australia and I think it will be an amazing opportunity to teach there. I would love to meet as many people and animals as possible. I really want to see a koala bear and a kangaroo while I'm there”.

Charles Sturt University (CSU) will hold its annual tertiary learning and teaching conference CSUEd2010, in Bathurst from 9-11 November, with six pre-conference workshops on Tuesday 9 November. The Conference Chair, Associate Professor Som Naidu, the Director of Teaching and Learning Quality Services in the CSU Division of Learning and Teaching Services, said the theme of this year’s conference is ‘Educating for 2020 and beyond’.“The two conference keynote addresses will be delivered by Professor Jeannie Herbert, Foundation Chair of Indigenous Studies at Charles Sturt University, and Professor Ron Barnett, Emeritus Professor of Higher Education at the University of London in the UK. The pre-conference workshops will allow staff from across the University to actively discuss a range of topics related to learning and teaching at the University including education for practice, blended and flexible learning, and curriculum renewal,” Professor Naidu said.

A leading international community critical psychologist and Charles Sturt University (CSU) academic, Professor David Fryer, will speak as part of the CSU public lecture series in Bathurst on Wednesday 17 November. Professor Fryer, a lecturer and researcher at the CSU School of Psychology in Bathurst, says his topic, Unemployment from a Community Critical Psychology Standpoint: Misery, Mental Ill-Health and Marienthal, examines the relationship between unemployment, misery, mental health and community life. “Although the first research into this topic commenced in the 1930s, the question has seldom been more internationally relevant, nor answers more needed, than since the recent global financial crisis which has led to mass unemployment, under-employment, and insecure employment in many of the world’s major economies. Social scientists agree that unemployment leads to mental health, social and community problems, not only among those directly affected but also in the wider community. This lecture will look at these problems from a community critical standpoint and discuss their international and local relevance,” Professor Fryer said.

Matt McNee is keeping his eyes on the ground as rain falls across NSW while he completes a PhD at Charles Sturt University (CSU) on cover cropping, where a crop is used primarily to cover and protect soil from water and wind erosion. With a background in farming sugar cane in Queensland, Matt is now at CSU’s Orange Campus observing the condition of soils on collaborating farms throughout NSW, including Orange and Wellington. “I’m looking at pure cropping and mixed farming properties with different soil types to discover whether the planting of crops intended for ground cover, as opposed to crops for grain yields, benefits the soil and increases efficiency of water conservation.” Matt hopes to discover how much cover is necessary to benefit soils in semiarid environments. “The objective is to adapt Australian farming systems in a semiarid environment to find the best cropping system and management options.”

Lecturers at the Charles Sturt University (CSU) School of Human Movement Studies will deliver four presentations at two free seminars for participants in the 25th CSU Bathurst Half Marathon and 10 kilometre Run to be held on Sunday 1 May. CSU lecturer Mr Peter Micalos said the seminars, at 6pm to 8pm on Tuesday 22 March and Tuesday 5 April at the CSU gym lecture room, will provide runners with current scientific knowledge about how to enhance their performance. “The first seminar on Tuesday 22 March will include presentations by Head of the School of Human Movement Studies, Professor Frank Marino, who will examine the question How will you hydrate for this event?, and Dr Rob Duffield’s presentation, Post-training recovery; recent evidence on best practice, will detail recent CSU-based research on positive and negative recovery practices following exercise. The following seminar on 5 April will examine Why should endurance athletes include weight training exercise? and Dietary fats and performance; the good, the bad, and the ugly,” Mr Micalos said.

A Charles Sturt University (CSU) lecturer who will be a guest speaker at a political forum at CSU in Albury-Wodonga on Wednesday 23 March is predicting the NSW election could be an acid test for the role of independents in Australian politics. Dr Troy Whitford, from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at CSU, is keeping a close watch on the performance of independent candidates in regional electorates. "The federal scene may have people second guessing the role of independents and their ability to contribute to good government," he said. With widespread predictions of a Coalition victory in the Saturday 26 March poll, Dr Whitford says the makeup of the NSW Legislative Council could be interesting. "It really depends on how much of a mandate voters want to give the prospective coalition government," he said. "A new government won't want to be stuck in negotiations with minor parties and independents." Read more here.  

Students with Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Albury-Wodonga will take a break from the normal mental challenges of study to pit themselves against fellow students from CSU in Wagga Wagga and La Trobe University in Wodonga in some physical competition in the annual Southern Zone Challenge this Thursday 24 March. The students will commence playing mixed netball and mixed touch from 3.30pm at Thurgoona Football Oval and Netball Courts, Tabletop Rd, Thurgoona, followed by presentations, a barbeque and music at ‘The G’ on the University’s Thurgoona campus. Student services adviser, Ms Kerry Read, said the event gives students the opportunity to travel to other universities and campuses and socialise with their peers.

A visiting international academic to Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Albury-Wodonga throws new light on climate change by asserting the gradual breakdown of the Earth’s water cycles caused by land clearing is playing a major role in climate change. Hosted by CSU’s Institute for Land, Water and Society, Professor Jan Pokorný, a plant physiologist from the Czech Republic will present his controversial views in a meeting to be held in Albury starting at 3pm on Wednesday 23 March. “The circulation of water in nature is driven by solar energy and takes place through 'large' [global] and 'small' [local] water cycles. Humanity, through activities such as agriculture and forestry systematically transforms natural land into cultured land, which accelerates the runoff of rainwater from land and increases the temperature of the land,” says Professor Pokorný. “The local water balance is disturbed and gradually breaks down over land. Global climate change is seen to be caused by human activities, where land clearing affects water drainage which causes temperatures to rise and trigger more climatic extremes: more frequent flooding, longer periods of drought and an increase in the water shortage in regions worldwide.”

Members of the Charles Sturt University’s (CSU) Ag Club will host a qualifying round for the Royal Agricultural Society’s Young Farmer Challenge on Friday 25 March at CSU in Orange. Students from the Bachelor of Agricultural Business Management are just some of those competing in the event which is designed to promote excellence in farming and showcase the involvement of youth in agriculture. “The Charles Sturt University Ag Club has a team competing in the Young Farmer Challenge but there is also an Orange Fire Brigade team, rugby teams, and students from St Stanislaus and Mackillop colleges taking part,” said CSU Ag Club president Mr Richard Connell. “We’re hoping to have about 40 competitors donating their entry fees to mental health agency Beyond Blue.” The teams of ten will compete in challenges including basic farm skills such as fencing, carting hay and shearing. “We encourage those interested in agriculture to join the CSU Ag Club which is not just for students.  It’s for anyone keen to be part of an agricultural network.”