Education Program

Program Leader: Dr Dan Churach, Murdoch University

Throughout its term, the Education Program was based on the premise that the key to any sustainable enterprise is people – and that the nurturing of the next generation of scientists, engineers and other trained site personnel can only be accomplished with an input of bright, well-educated students interested in applying scientific principles to solve sustainability problems facing industry.

The Education Program aimed to influence graduates who were not only outstanding scientists and engineers, but also were grounded in a strong belief that economic growth and environmental sustainability are quite compatible within the mineral resource sector.

Additionally, the "sustainability is people" theme was extended beyond CSRP staff, students and collaborators and reached out to the community at large in the belief that true sustainability can only result from an educated public. CSRP asserts that there can be no research without researchers, nor can there be any employers without employees. It has been a continuing aim of the Education Program to address the shortage of young people choosing careers in the mining, minerals and resource processing industries in Australia. These efforts have for the most part been focussed on teacher professional development and school student contacts.

During the seven years of CSRP, over 1000 teachers, student teachers and other education professionals have participated at some level in one or more professional development events aimed at increasing their general and technical knowledge about the mineral resource sector. Besides offering strong technical content material to teachers, these events fostered an appreciation for increasing need to stimulate enterprising young minds to solve the challenges facing Australia's mineral resource sector.

CSRP has supported a variety of undergraduate initiatives since its inception. Undergraduate projects were funded both to support ongoing research and to offer insight and encouragement to students to consider careers in research. In some cases, participant university structures allowed a number of these undergraduates (e.g. fourth year projects) to earn an Honours degree upon exemplary completion of their thesis. These types of projects were carried out at Curtin University, Murdoch University and the University of Queensland. In nearly all cases, industry supervision complemented academic supervisors.

A variety of professional development courses offered in collaboration with participating industry and research providers were available to CSRP students and participants. The purpose of these professional development events was to develop and enhance the methods and skills of researchers in an effort to maximise abilities to meet real-world challenges.

Achievements

• Total postgraduate population consisting of 32 PhD candidates and 11 Masters students.
• Additionally, CSRP funded 31 successful Honours student projects and 38 undergraduate student projects – fostering a wide based student interest in basic research aimed at a more sustainable mineral resource industry.
• An ongoing network of young researchers across a multitude of scientific disciplines was developed and encouraged through the series of four national Student-Industry-CRC symposia.
• School teacher professional development activities were run across Australia – with over 100 school teachers participating each year.
• Co-sponsorship of teacher laboratory sessions and workshops at the Science Teachers Association of Western Australia annual
  "Future Science" event.
• A series of research projects evaluating the CSRP Teacher Program was completed and presented at international conferences reporting on teacher professional development as the key to a sustainable workforce in the mineral resource sector.
• Coordination of four national symposia of postgraduates from all the mining, mineral resource and energy Cooperative Research Centres as well as other invited young researchers. These symposia allowed CSRP to spread the sustainability message to a broader audience of future researchers.
• In collaboration with the Minerals Tertiary Education Council's "Metallurgical Education Partnership", the Education Program contributed to the design and implementation of a definitive course in metallurgical process design for final year undergraduate students at three Australian universities. CSRP was responsible for promoting SUSOP® principles and practices which were introduced to students from Curtin University, Murdoch University and the University of Queensland.
• An undergraduate course titled "Sustainable Mineral Processing and Environmental Management in the Minerals Industry" was introduced to extractive metallurgy students at Murdoch University and became part of the overall degree program.
• Lectures to high school students and the community at large were given in Western Australia, Queensland and Victoria involving dozens of high schools.
  
• A Vocational Education and Training (VET) project was completed with collaborator Central TAFE. The "Sustainability Training Pilot" was completed during the second year of CSRP and was aimed to train non-professionals in the principles of sustainability.

Initiatives and Collaborations

For more information about the initiatives of the Education Program, please refer to the following:

Teacher Program Professional Development Program SCIps Program (School, Community and Industry Partnerships in Science) CSIRO Scientists in Schools Program	Professional Development Professional Development including: Professional and Personal Development Program Community Lectures Vocational Education and Training
CSRP Students Graduates Student-Industry-CRC Symposia Student Support Fund	Potential Students Why Students Studied within CSRP Scholarships Research Projects for students interested in sustainable minerals processing
Educational Research Developing Sustainable Attitudes: Teacher Professional Development (5B1) Gladstone Area Mathematics, Science and Engineering Teachers (GAMSET) Enhancement Program (5B3) Motivational Factors Driving Career Choices in the Minerals Sector (5B2) Sustainability Training Pilot (5A1) Science Career Inventory Questionnaire Published Articles concerning the Education Program

Contact

Dr Dan Churach
Murdoch University
p. (08) 9360 2831
e. d.churach@murdoch.edu.au