Red Guide Paper 42: Managing a Module Part 1: Delivering a Module

This revised guide covers various aspects of the process for developing a new module and provides an overview of the general principles of module development

Building meaningful assessment around Mudang-Dali – an Indigenous-connected curriculum

In 2017, Universities Australia launched its Indigenous Strategy 2017–2020, with its aim being to “support the advancement of Indigenous peoples in and through Australia’s universities”. A core part of this aim was to ensure “all students will encounter and engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural content as integral parts of their course of study”. In 2022, Universities Australia launched its 2022-2025 Indigenous Strategy, which expanded upon its 2017-2020 strategy to promote action rather than being aspirational. The strategy continues to have a focus on embedding Indigenous knowledge into curriculum so that all graduates will have “a strong foundational understanding of Indigenous values and knowledges” and to ensure that the Indigenous content is “meaningful, appropriately developed and appropriately resourced”. Mudang-Dali means ‘to live’ in the Dharug language. At Macquarie University, situated on Dharug land, the Mudang-Dali Indigenous Connected Curriculum Framework has been providing academics with the confidence and support to embed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge, values, and philosophies into the curriculum. We have been seeing positive learning examples across all disciplines, showcasing the richness of Indigenous knowledge systems in different learning settings including in lectures, workshops, field trips and practicals. There has, however, been limited discussion on assessment accompanying these learnings. To emphasise and reinforce the significance of these learnings to our students, it is important that there are meaningful assessment tasks related to the Indigenous content in the curriculum. In doing so, students obtain a deeper understanding of Indigenous knowledge, ways of learning, and perspectives, and we show them that we value Mudang-Dali. We also enrich our own knowledge as educators. In this presentation, we will provide examples of assessments that have accompanied Mudang-Dali content and have given meaningful learning and transformative experiences for our students and the educators. This includes examples that have fostered exchange of knowledge, skills and capability strengthening for Macquarie University staff and students and our First Nations collaborators. REFERENCE Universities Australia (2022) Indigenous Strategy 2022-25; https://www.universitiesaustralia.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/UA-Indigenous-Strategy-2022-25.pd

Facilitating opportunity and inclusion through STEM

We all aspire to make valuable contributions to society, and in academia and as scientists and/or STEM practitioners there are many ways that these contributions can be made. I have been able to contribute towards tangible community benefits in ways that I never initially anticipated, and in ways that have been immensely rewarding and educational for myself, my research group and coursework students I teach. In this presentation, I will share how research that started with looking at the chemistry of bush medicines in partnership with Yaegl Country Elders, progressed to the multi-award-winning National Indigenous Science Education Program (NISEP, nisep.org.au) that positions Indigenous secondary school students as STEM leaders and role models, building confidence, capacity, pride and aspirations in these youth and the wider community. I will also describe how Macquarie University students are integral in NISEP’s empowerment of Indigenous youth and how they contribute to the sustainability and improvement of NISEP and other STEM programs while transforming themselves, particularly within the Macquarie University unit Engaging the Community in Science: “The unit has opened my eyes to the experiences of under-represented student groups within our community and has allowed me to use my experience to nurture and support these students. It has further fostered a deep appreciation of our Indigenous communities and has inspired me to incorporate awareness and support these communities through my current study, striving for an increase in equity within our society.” - Former Engaging the Community in Science student. I will also describe how my collaborations with First Nations peoples have enabled respectful incorporation of Indigenous knowledge and ways of learning into Macquarie University units, as we take our first steps towards Mudang Dali – the Indigenous Connected Curriculum. In sharing my experiences and insights, I hope this will be an inspiration for others to grasp opportunities to contribute to building inclusion and a sense of pride and belonging for staff and students within their university and in their connections to wider community. REFERENCES Jamie, J. (2021). Macquarie–Yaegl Partnership: Community Capability Strengthening Through Western and Indigenous Science. Australian Journal of Chemistry, 74(1), 28–33. https://doi.org/10.1071/CH20248 Barnes, E.C., Jamie, I.M., Vemulpad, S.R., Yaegl Community Elders, Breckenridge, D., Froud, A.E., Harrington, D.G., Packer, J.M., Prenzler, P.D., Bedgood, D.R. Jr., & Jamie, J.F. (2022). National Indigenous Science Education Program (NISEP): Outreach Strategies That Facilitate Inclusion. Journal of Chemical Education, 99(1), 245-251. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.1c0039

Symmetry Restored in Dibosons at the LHC?

A number of LHC resonance search channels display an excess in the invariant mass region of 1.8 - 2.0 TeV. Among them is a $3.4\,\sigma$ excess in the fully hadronic decay of a pair of Standard Model electroweak gauge bosons, in addition to potential signals in the $HW$ and dijet final states. We perform a model-independent cross-section fit to the results of all ATLAS and CMS searches sensitive to these final states. We then interpret these results in the context of the Left-Right Symmetric Model, based on the extended gauge group $SU(2)_L\times SU(2)_R\times U(1)'$, and show that a heavy right-handed gauge boson $W_R$ can naturally explain the current measurements with just a single coupling $g_R \sim 0.4$. In addition, we discuss a possible connection to dark matter.Comment: 25 pages, 12 figures, V2: references added, extended discussion of Minimal Left-Right Dark Matter, small correction to decay width - conclusions unchanged, V3: expanded discussion of input parameters and statistical procedure, V4: matches published versio

Coordination Matters : Interpersonal Synchrony Influences Collaborative Problem-Solving

The authors thank Martha von Werthern and Caitlin Taylor for their assistance with data collection, Cathy Macpherson for her assistance with the preparation of the manuscript, and Mike Richardson, Alex Paxton, and Rick Dale for providing MATLAB code to assist with data analysis. The research was funded by the British Academy (SG131613).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

VIRTUAL LABORATORY ON AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL CUSTOMARY MEDICINES

Universities Australia Indigenous Strategy 2017–2020 aims to “ensure all students will encounter and engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural content as integral parts of their course of study”. Universities across Australia are endeavouring to incorporate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge into their curricula in a respectful, meaningful and sustainable manner. At Macquarie University, situated on Dharug land, the Mudang-Dali (‘to live’ in the Dharug language) Indigenous Connected Curriculum Framework is providing academics with the confidence and support to embed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge, values and philosophies into curriculum. With this support, in Session 1 2020, we developed a laboratory on customary medicines that incorporates a yarning circle, bush food and medicines garden tour, water extraction and chromatographic fractionation of an Australian medicinal plant, and analysis of antioxidant activity (aligned with customary use) of the extract and fractions therein. Designed to be interactive, hands-on and communal, with the implementation of COVID-19 restrictions this laboratory was quickly pivoted into a successful virtual laboratory. This presentation will describe the core components of the laboratory, which interweave Indigenous knowledge and perspectives, and the adaptability of this laboratory for online and face-to-face teaching in the tertiary (and secondary) sectors

Complementarity of Resonant Scalar, Vector-Like Quark and Superpartner Searches in Elucidating New Phenomena

The elucidation of the nature of new phenomena requires a multi-pronged approach to understand the essential physics that underlies it. As an example, we study the simplified model containing a new scalar singlet accompanied by vector-like quarks, as motivated by the recent diphoton excess at the LHC. To be specific, we investigate three models with $SU(2)_L$-doublet, vector-like quarks with Yukawa couplings to a new scalar singlet and which also couple off-diagonally to corresponding Standard Model fermions of the first or third generation through the usual Higgs boson. We demonstrate that three classes of searches can play important and complementary roles in constraining this model. In particular, we find that missing energy searches designed for superparticle production, supply superior sensitivity for vector-like quarks than the dedicated new quark searches themselves.Comment: References added; small bug found in model and analysis implementation, numerical results slightly modified, conclusions unchange