Welcome to the September 2005 edition of the CSRP Newsletter. If you wish to have anything included in the newsletter, please e-mail Kelly Dwyer at kelly.dwyer@csrp.com.au
Welcome to Professor Ben Adair, Director of the JKMRC, University of Queensland, who has joined CSRP as the new Program 2 Manager. Dr Rob Morrison will be continuing his valued involvement with CSRP by focussing on project research activities. We thank Rob for his contribution as Program 2 Manager.
Standard CSRP documents and templates, such as the Request to Publish forms, standard acknowledgements and PowerPoint templates are located on CRC Centric. These documents and templates assist CSRP to brand itself correctly and ensure that we meet our obligations to DEST and our participants. Please contact Rachel Hope at rachel.hope@csrp.com.au if you need assistance with CRC Centric.
Conference
I attended the Fourth International Science, Mathematics and Technology Education Conference in Victoria, British Colombia from Thursday 25 th August through Sunday 28 th August. This was the third time I have been to this series of conferences and I particularly find it a valuable forum for presenting and discussing current educational work because it tends to be an international audience as well as a cross-section of education (from primary through tertiary institutions)
The conference theme of ‘Sustainable Communities and Sustainable Environments: Envisioning a role of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education’ was particularly appropriate to the work now being carried out through CSRP in terms of sustainability in the mineral processing industry.
Two papers were presented – “ Teacher professional development as the key to a sustainable workforce in the mineral resource sector” and “ Motivational drivers affecting career choices in the resource sector: The Science Career Inventory (SCI).” Both can be found at www.csrp.com.au/education/articles.html.
Both presentations were well attended and the questions and feedback were quite positive and valuable. Besides attending and participating in a variety of presentations, I was able to form some new relationships with fellow educators as well as nurture old ones. The interactions of the week offered an excellent sounding board for the work we have been doing in CSRP as well as confirming that the directions we are moving seem to be supported by the greater educational community.
University of Limerick, Ireland
I travelled to the University of Limerick on Thursday 8 September. I initially met with the Director of the Materials and Surface Science Institute (MSSI), Dr Edmond Magner; and was taken on a tour of the MSSI. I learned about the structure and organisation of MSSI and in particular, the relationship they have with Aughinish Alumina.
I met several members of the University from the MSSI, Department of Chemical and Environmental Sciences; and Department of Physics. I also met with the Vice President of Research. A number of the staff and students I met will be attending the Alumina Quality Workshop in Perth There is a strong interest in the Teacher Program and how that can be successfully run at the University of Limerick. The discussions held in general were very productive and the contacts made will be useful going forward.
If you are aware of any upcoming conferences that would be of interest to other CSRP members, please e-mail the details to Kelly Dwyer. Links to these conferences (where available) will be published in the newsletter each month.
It would be wonderful to keep our publications lists up to date. If you have anything that has been published as part of CSRP (including conference presentations), could you please send Kelly Dwyer a copy of or the reference for the publication? Listed below are publications received this month and a complete list can be found in the Publications section.