Page 553 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 13 February 2013
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Tonight I would like to focus on one of the major national institutions in Canberra contributing to our knowledge base and careers in the fields of science and maths, the CSIRO. In the ACT there are approximately 1,900 people working at seven locations. The Black Mountain laboratories are a hub for research activities in environmental and biological sciences. Also located there is the discovery centre, a major science history attraction. Mathematics, informatics and statistic scientists are co-located with the ANU. The Canberra deep space communication complex at Tidbinbilla receives data from and transmits commands to spacecraft on deep space missions.
I am pretty keen to talk about a few of the CSIRO’s education efforts to engage teachers, students and the wider community in the areas of maths and science. Their aim—our aim—is to invest in Australia’s long-term future. Scientists in schools, with its subprogram mathematicians in schools, is a national program that creates and supports long-term flexible partnerships between teachers, scientists and mathematicians. In the ACT there are over 60 partnerships with primary and secondary schools.
Students benefit from meeting practising scientists and mathematicians. Teachers benefit from increased engagement with their students and an increase in their own confidence and knowledge. For scientists and mathematicians, it is an opportunity to work and communicate with students and teachers and to promote interest in their fields.
CSIRO’s carbonkids program, part of the Australian sustainable schools initiative, combines the latest science with sustainability education. School communities around the nation as well as the ACT are learning to understand climate change. Carbonkids schools are encouraged to explore vegetation management and revegetation in school grounds and wetlands as an effective way of sequestering carbon and tackling climate change.
Last September I was a speaker at the national youth science forum orientation evening held at CSIRO headquarters. Canberra-based partnerships include the ACT government and CSIRO. The forum is the only program in Australia that offers high school students the chance to commence and to examine a range of universities and careers in science.
The CSIRO, in addition to being a major employer in Canberra, benefits us in many ways. Three examples are: we recently commemorated the 10th anniversary of the Canberra bushfires. The CSIRO forest systems group’s research priorities and expertise include bushfire dynamics and applications. They are world leaders in bushfire behaviour research. Secondly, the endangered Camden white gum to be planted in the arboretum originated from seeds sourced from the CSIRO Australian tree seed centre in the ACT.
Thirdly, as part of our centenary celebrations, the ACT CSIRO discovery centre is putting together an exhibition, opening in March, about the tens of thousands of people who have been employed by the CSIRO since the first building was opened at Black Mountain in 1927—lots of people, lots of memories. The discovery centre
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