STEM Outreach in Northern Queensland: The Importance of Providing Professional Development and Networking Opportunities to Educators

Teachers play a significant role as advocates for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) professions and through their work students are encouraged and enabled to progress to STEM related fields in higher education. In 2014, a multi-disciplinary team of tertiary educators provided professional development, capacity-building and networking experiences for STEM secondary educators in regional Northern Queensland. This Higher Education Participation and Partnership Program (HEPPP) funded outreach initiative focused on two key areas of the HEPPP strategic priorities of professional development; engagement and capacity building, to support the teachers in delivering science and science-related curriculum concepts. Hurdles arose between the professional development objectives and the situation of secondary schools in rural and remote regions experiencing social and economic challenges, seeking to leverage opportunities for enrichment and engagement with STEM initiatives and expertise. This paper is a retrospective account of the initiative’s successes and challenges, paying particular attention to the complexities in STEM education in rural-remote locations and the importance of capacity building through networking opportunities

Supporting biomedical students struggling with second-choice-syndrome to thrive rather than just survive first year

The James Cook University (JCU) Biomedical Science students struggle with their first year and "second-choice-syndrome" as evidenced by high inter-degree transfer rates and low primary degree completions despite the cohort having high subject or unit grade point averages. This project evaluated the impact of two extracurricular support initiatives (email newsletters and themed luncheons) to deliver just-in-time information and support on student engagement and success. Students and academics rated the initiatives highly with positive support themes of networking, collegiality, belonging and engagement; there was no direct improvement in subject grades or degree satisfaction metrics. However, there was an increase in degree, college, and university student retention. It is becoming increasingly important to recognize and separate the classic academic measures of grades as an indication of success and that more personal or social support is required for students to thrive regardless of cohort demographics or career path. A student's initial experience on campus is important and influences students’ persistence in higher education and their believed capabilities

Supporting biomedical students struggling with second-choice-syndrome to thrive rather than just survive first year

The James Cook University (JCU) Biomedical Science students struggle with their first year and "second-choice-syndrome" as evidenced by high inter-degree transfer rates and low primary degree completions despite the cohort having high subject or unit grade point averages. This project evaluated the impact of two extracurricular support initiatives (email newsletters and themed luncheons) to deliver just-in-time information and support on student engagement and success. Students and academics rated the initiatives highly with positive support themes of networking, collegiality, belonging and engagement; there was no direct improvement in subject grades or degree satisfaction metrics. However, there was an increase in degree, college, and university student retention. It is becoming increasingly important to recognize and separate the classic academic measures of grades as an indication of success and that more personal or social support is required for students to thrive regardless of cohort demographics or career path. A student's initial experience on campus is important and influences students’ persistence in higher education and their believed capabilities

Just-in-time information and support for first year biomedical students

The transition to university from either secondary school or the workforce can be a challenging one, with one-quarter of first year students considering withdrawing in their first year (James et al. 2010; Tinto 2012). The negative aspects related to student withdrawal are three fold, affecting the withdrawing students, the remaining students and the institution. \ud \ud The Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences first year support initiatives began following an evaluation of the 2013 James Cook University Experience Survey (UES) data, which highlighted that a variety of reasons provided for considering early course withdraw were higher than the national average: particularly first in family (60% vs 48.3%), financial difficulties (37% vs 29%) and family responsibilities (23% vs 17%). JCU Biomedical students, like all first year students, struggle with the first year transition. This is compounded by 33% of them struggling with 'second-choice-syndrome' which is the disappointment of not being accepted into their first choice course. The professionally accredited courses of medicine, physiotherapy, pharmacy, nursing and dentistry are often their first choice courses. \ud \ud Little information exists on the most effective means to disseminate just-in-time information or what just-in-time information is pertinent for the students as they progress through their university 'student lifecycle' (Lizzio 2011). Kift et al. (2010) suggests the transition pedagogy transcends the silos of academic and administrative support to a more holistic support for students. The challenge is to create a resource bank of pertinent support information and support contacts required at critical times early in the students' university transition. To date no such resource outline exists for Biomedical students in first, second or third year. \ud \ud Our first year student support initiatives to disseminate just-in-time information included a bi-weekly newsletter (MicroBytes) and a monthly Biomed Freaky Friday (BFF) event. The BFF events provided an opportunity for students to network with peers, academic staff, JCU Student Support services, and external career and professional collaborators. The support initiatives have had considerable success in terms of positive feedback to date from students and academic staff. \ud \ud The plan is to continue providing support while evaluating the success of these first year initiatives. While it is difficult to set key performance indicators/targets for extracurricular student support strategies such as these, we plan to monitor and document student perceptions, retention and overall engagement. We intend to extend these initiatives to continue student support through the difficult first to second year transition to avoid sophomore slump (Loughlin et al. 2013) and to assist third years with career preparation

Helping biomedical science students struggling with "second-choice-syndrome" to thrive rather than just survive

James Cook University (JCU) Biomedical Science students struggle with their first and second year transitions, which appear compounded by 'second-choice-syndrome' (disappointment of not being accepted into their first choice degree) as evidenced by high inter-degree transfer rates and low primary degree completions. This is despite the cohort having high subject (unit) grade point averages and satisfaction ratings. This project evaluated the impact of two extracurricular strategies (email newsletters, themed luncheons) on student engagement and success as evidenced by formal and informal student/staff feedback and success. While students rated the initiatives highly with positive support themes of networking, collegiality, belonging and engagement, there was no direct improvement in grades, retention or degree satisfaction metrics. It is becoming increasing important to recognise and separate the classic academic measures of student survival from the personal and social support required for students to thrive regardless of cohort demographics or career path

Training Merino sheep to respond to visual and auditory cues

The feasibility of training sheep to approach a stimulus was investigated in three experimental groups and a control group of fine wool Merino sheep (n = 11 in each group). The experimental groups (n = 11) were trained to approach either a visual (V), auditory (A), or visual + auditory (V+A) stimulus over eight training sessions and were subsequently tested in a T-maze for memory retention on six occasions over a 4-month period. Four testing occasions were spaced at greater than 30 days apart while two were less than 3 days apart. Sheep learned to approach the cues during the training period and the tests indicated that the sheep retained memory of the cues for over 130 days without reinforcement. The controls received no contingency exposure and made no choice in the T-maze test. The proportion of correct stimulus choices (±s.e.m.) in the T-maze averaged over the four longer-spaced testing occasions were V 0.61 (0.06), A 0.50 (0.11), V+A 0.77 (0.04). These differences approached significance (P = 0.058). Sheep trained to the V+A stimulus performed significantly (

Effects of Merino flock size, paddock complexity and time of day on response to trained leaders

This study examined if Merino sheep trained to respond to a combined visual and auditory stimulus could influence the movement of naïve Merino sheep flocks when the stimulus was activated. Trained Merino ewes were mixed with naive ewes and wethers in three groups of different sizes. Group ratios were (trained:naïve) Small Mob (SM) 1:5 ratio (n = 18), Medium Mob (MM) 1:10 (n = 33) and Large Mob (LM) 1:15 (n = 48). These groups were tested in 2 phases of increasing complexity. The first phase examined the responses of the different sized flocks (SM, MM and LM) to leader-initiated movement in 3 visually open paddocks (OP) during morning and afternoon grazing. The second phase examined the response of two flocks (SM and LM) at similar times but in 3 visually complex paddocks (CP). Animal groups were tested on 1 day per week in each paddock at pseudo random times. One hundred percent of the SM, 73.5% of the MM and 70% of the LM approached within 6 m of the stimulus in the OP tests. In the CP 100% of the SM and 56.5% of the LM approached the stimulus. The LM's proximity to the stimulus in some of the CP tests was more than 6 m, however, it was not significant compared to the other CP or OP tests. Sixty seven percent of the SM animals and 33% of the LM of naïve sheep were observed to initiate movement toward the stimulus after the 6 tests in phase one. At the end of the first phase of testing the proportion of naïve sheep observed to be eating the previously unknown grain (lupins) was SM 73%, MM 60% and LM 36%, suggesting that naïve sheep will learn to eat a novel grain by following trained animals. Sub-grouping of the flock in this study was not a hindrance to flock movement. This study demonstrated that sheep trained to respond to a stimulus do provide leadership when mixed with naive sheep flocks causing a flock to rapidly change position to congregate around an activated stimulus. These findings suggest that trained animals could be used to manipulate animal movement for farm management purposes

Precision pastures: opportunities and challenges for spatial information to improve productivity and animal welfare in extensive livestock systems

The use of spatial information in extensive livestock systems is not new. However the use of GPS tracking technology on livestock, coupled with existing or new remote and proximal plant/soil sensing technologies is redefining opportunities and challenges for using spatial information to improve productivity and animal welfare in livestock systems. Interest amongst researchers, technology developers and end-users is growing, as evidenced by recent forums given over to spatially-enabled livestock management (SELM), including the 1st ANZ SELM Symposium (Australia) and the SELM Session at the 10th International Conference on PA (USA), both held in July this year. Based on the outcomes of both of these forums, this presentation will canvas some of these opportunities and challenges as they relate to understanding the complex interactions between animals and their grazing environment, including pastures or crops, and discuss avenues for using such data as part of livestock management

A career development program: Building resilience in veterinary undergraduates

Retaining workers in high stress occupations and preparing undergraduates to enter these occupations continues to intensify along with mental health and wellbeing challenges. The veterinary profession is particularly vulnerable to poor psychological health which contributes negatively to the retention of veterinarians in the profession. Employing the positive psychology theoretical model rationale, and the andragogy philosophies and approaches, a veterinary career development (VCD) program was scaffolded across a five year Bachelor of Veterinary Science (BVSc) degree. Thematic analysis of participants’ feedback with a focus on what they think, feel and do provided valuable insights into participants’ developing skill-strength and tacit knowledge, and their resilience-building. The authors believe this is the first report on the creation and outcomes of a veterinary career development program that fosters the building of resilience through the attainment of tacit knowledge and practical skills required for successful employment and wellbeing

Can diurnal variation in velocity of grazing pregnant Merino ewes be used to identify lambing?

The development of remote monitoring of animal behaviour will have many implications. One major issue with these technologies is that they generate large datasets. Therefore, methods are required that can reduce these datasets to more manageable sizes and therefore help to improve decision making for livestock management and welfare. It is known that pregnant ewes change their behaviour around lambing, with one observed change being that the ewe drops behind the main flock as lambing approaches. A benefit from knowing when the ewe is about to lamb, or has lambed, could be a reduction in lamb mortality at this critical time. Dobos et al (2010) showed that Bayesian change point analysis could be used to identify the onset of lambing using mean daily speed as a metric. However, there may be other methods that could be used to identify lambing. To test if changes in diurnal variation with velocity as a metric can be used to identify lambing, data from an investigation on shelter use by pregnant grazing Merino ewes (Taylor et al. 2011) was summarised for this analysis. The mean hourly velocities (m/s) calculated from GPS locations taken at 10 minute intervals from five grazing pregnant Merino ewes seven days before lambing, at lambing, three and seven days after lambing (period) were analysed using a mixed model. Variation in hourly velocity between ewes in all periods was high. No significance difference (P>0.05) was found in diurnal variation between periods. Mean hourly velocity peaked at 5h and at 16h for ewes 7d before, 3d after and 7d after lambing. At lambing mean hourly velocity was reduced, with two short peaks at 5h and 9h and two higher peaks at 12h and 20h. Because of the large variation in individual ewe velocity in all periods, further research is required to determine if these changes in peak velocity times correlate with changes in behaviour at lambing