Another Aussie Parrot at Risk
Beattie, A. 2015. Millenium Alliance for Humanity and Biosphere. | Find with Google Scholar »
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Dear all,
Welcome to the first of my (and Anne-Marie’s) Dept Matters! Thank you to all who came along to the ‘passing of the doe’ ceremony – it was great to see so many there to enjoy cakes and say a big thank you to Mariella for her hard work and dedication as HoD over the last 3.5 years. Keep sending in news of your success and opportunities. Stay warm over the weekend!
cheerio
Michelle
General News and Announcements
Grant Success!
Dr Leanne Armand and Prof. Marie Herberstein were successful in gaining Faculty of Science and Engineering Learning and Teaching funds to develop the new “Biology in Practice” 100-level unit.
Learning and Teaching Grants: 6 weeks to go!
The deadline for Innovation and Scholarship Program (ISP) & Extension grants (Round 2) is Monday, 24 August 2015. Interested staff must contact Faculty Associate Deans Learning and Teaching, and/or Directors in Offices to discuss ideas prior to developing submissions. Please note: Faculty / Office deadlines generally close one week earlier. More information about the grants can be found here.
Learning and Teaching Grants – ISP & Extension Grants – Information Exchange
24 July – E6A116 – 10.30 to 11.30
At this session, grants support staff will provide an overview of grants schemes and the new portal for submissions. It will also provide a forum to meet other staff interested in learning and teaching projects and research.
Convenor: Helen Carter
Information: Laura Heron
Register here
Learning and Teaching Grants – ISP & Extension Grants Draft Application Workshop
10 August – E6A116 – 13.00 – 15.00
This workshop will provide staff with an opportunity to share and workshop draft ISP and EG applications ahead of the 24 August 2015 deadline. The setting will be informal so that staff can get to know each other and build connections across discipline areas at Macquarie.
Convenor: Helen Carter
Information: Laura Heron
Register here
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The deadline for Vice-Chancellor Learning and Teaching Award nominations is Monday, 3 August 2015.Guidelines and nomination forms can be found here.OLT Citation and Award winners will be invited to the award presentation event on Monday evening, 14 September 2015. HDR Supervision is no longer a category in this program and has been moved to Research.
If anyone needs help with submission writing, please let Laura Heron (laura.heron@mq.edu.au) know.
Job Opportunity
Position: Tutorial Development Officer
Level A step 6 casual (~$54.43/hour (+17% on-costs) x 200 hours).
Description: This role will development support to Dr Leanne Armand and Prof. Mariella Herberstein to develop practical and tutorial activities for the new and revised units BIOL116 (Biology in Practice: a new skills-based unit with 1 lecture, 1 practical and 1 tutorial per week) and BIOL114 (Organisms to Ecosystems), respectively.
Desired Skills: iLearn, outreach and media experience, enthusiasm for biology, practical teaching experience, work place health and safety (WHS) and sustainability awareness.
Application process: a one page expression of interest addressing the desired skills should be addressed to Dr Leanne Armand (leanne.armand@mq.edu.au) and Prof. Mariella Herberstein (marie.herberstein@mq.edu.au).
Application deadline: COB 27th July 2015.
Position is available between August and December 2015.
OLT 2015-16 secondment opportunities
The Office for Learning and Teaching is offering two academic secondments in 2015–16.
Academics seconded to the OLT will undertake work on an area of strategic importance to learning and teaching in higher education and enhance the ties between the Department of Education and Training and the higher education sector.
Closing date for nominations is COB Friday 31 July 2015. Can you please encourage suitable staff members to nominate for these positions?
More information and details on how you or your staff can nominate are at http://www.olt.gov.au/fellowships-and-secondments/secondments.
Please contact us at learningandteaching@education.gov.au or by phone on (02) 6240 0625.
Biology Garden
You may have noticed some changes to the Biology garden – both in the courtyard and the neighbouring garden.
This is part of a big project to rejuvenate the garden. First some trees will be removed or trimmed. This will be followed by some fixing of walls, updating of pathways and landscaping works. After this is completed we’ll be adding more plants to the garden. As this is primarily a teaching garden, we will be adding species that are important in the study of plant ecology, and of interest to researchers and undergrads. Any questions or comments should be directed to Samantha Newton <samantha.newton@mq.edu.au>
Request for video recording equipment
Koa Webster and Leanne Armand are asking all the students in BIOL188 to do a 2 minute presentation. They would like to record these presentations and, with the students permission, put them on the degree website. If you have access to any recording equipment can you please contact Koa Webster <koa.webster@mq.edu.au>. They would like to use it on Friday 7th August but are willing to be flexible.
The passing of the Doe
A small photo montage to celebrate our new HOD. Please stop in to say hello.
Plant of the week: Viburnum tinus- outwardly a boring plant but with an intriguing secret
This week we have written up Viburnum tinus – a shrub with domatia on the undersurface of the leaves – the domatia serve as refugia for predatory mites which prey on the dreaded horticultural pest, Two Spotted Mite (or Red Spider Mite).
Discarding Cardboard
When disposing of cardboard please flatten your cardboard boxes and place them, neatly stacked, to one side of the loading dock, E8A, Eastern Rd.
Some Sustainable Purchase Options
Thankyou food company – url https://thankyou.co/food
The Environmental Toothbrush – url http://
HDR skills
Sally Purcell is the new HDR Professional Skills Manager. She wants people’s opinions on what skills HDR candidates need for their projects, and more broadly to set them up for a great career. Her email is sally.purcell@mq.edu.au and I’m sure she’d be delighted to receive any input on how the HDRO can support students in acquiring these skills – ideas big and small.
Nature on Education
This week’s Nature Magazine has a special section on education. Check it out here:nature.com/stem
New Publications
Evidence for a mid-Jurassic adaptive radiation in mammals
Close, R. A., Friedman, M., Lloyd, G. T. and Benson, R. B. J., in press. Evidence for a mid-Jurassic adaptive radiation in mammals. Current Biology. | Find with Google Scholar »Competition and mimicry: the curious case of chaetae in brachiopods from the middle Cambrian Burgess Shale
Topper, T. P., L. C. Strotz, L. E. Holmer, Z. Zhang, N. N. Tait, and J.-B. Caron. 2015. Competition and mimicry: the curious case of chaetae in brachiopods from the middle Cambrian Burgess Shale. Bmc Evolutionary Biology 15:42-42. | Find with Google Scholar »Three spectrally distinct photoreceptors in diurnal and nocturnal Australian ants
Ogawa, Y., M. Falkowski, A. Narendra, J. Zeil, and J. M. Hemmi. 2015. Three spectrally distinct photoreceptors in diurnal and nocturnal Australian ants. Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences 282:50673-50673. | Find with Google Scholar »Using ecosystem experiments to improve vegetation models
Medlyn, B. E., S. Zaehle, M. G. De Kauwe, A. P. Walker, M. C. Dietze, P. J. Hanson, T. Hickler, A. K. Jain, Y. Luo, W. Parton, I. C. Prentice, P. E. Thornton, S. Wang, Y.-P. Wang, E. Weng, C. M. Iversen, H. R. McCarthy, J. M. Warren, R. Oren, and R. J. Norby. 2015. Using ecosystem experiments to improve vegetation models. Nature Climate Change 5:528-534. | Find with Google Scholar »Personality in the wild zebra finch: exploration, sociality, and reproduction
McCowan, L. S. C., M. C. Mainwaring, N. H. Prior, and S. C. Griffith. 2015. Personality in the wild zebra finch: exploration, sociality, and reproduction. Behavioral Ecology 26:735-746. | Find with Google Scholar »Active but asocial: exploration and activity is linked to social behaviour in a colonially breeding finch
McCowan, L. S. C., and S. C. Griffith. 2015. Active but asocial: exploration and activity is linked to social behaviour in a colonially breeding finch. Behaviour 152:1145-1167. | Find with Google Scholar »Incorporating carbon footprints into seafood sustainability certification and eco-labels
Madin, E. M. P., and P. I. Macreadie. 2015. Incorporating carbon footprints into seafood sustainability certification and eco-labels. Marine Policy 57:178-181. | Find with Google Scholar »Invasion genetics: Lessons from a ubiquitous bird, the house sparrow Passer domesticus.
Liebl, A. L., A. W. Schrey, S. C. Andrew, E. L. Sheldon, and S. C. Griffith. 2015. Invasion genetics: Lessons from a ubiquitous bird, the house sparrow Passer domesticus. Current Zoology 61:465-476. | Find with Google Scholar »The timing of autumn senescence is affected by the timing of spring phenology: implications for predictive models.
Keenan, T. F., and A. D. Richardson. 2015. The timing of autumn senescence is affected by the timing of spring phenology: implications for predictive models. Global Change Biology 21:2634-2641. | Find with Google Scholar »Hydrological conditions explain variation in wood density in riparian plants of south-eastern Australia
Lawson, J. R., K. A. Fryirs, and M. R. Leishman. 2015. Hydrological conditions explain variation in wood density in riparian plants of south-eastern Australia. Journal of Ecology 103:945-956. | Find with Google Scholar »Comparison of the cross-shelf phytoplankton distribution of two oceanographically distinct regions off Australia
Armbrecht, L. H., et al. (2015). "Comparison of the cross-shelf phytoplankton distribution of two oceanographically distinct regions off Australia." Journal of Marine Systems 148: 26-38. | Find with Google Scholar »In the Media
Mammals went through an ‘explosion’ of evolution while dinosaurs roamed the Earth
Some nice coverage for our own Graeme Lloyd in the Daily Mail.
Read more »Recent Completions
PhD- Dalila Rendon: The role of wolf spiders (Araeneae: Lycosidae) on the biological control of the boll worm Helicoverpa spp. (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) in cotton crops
Supervised by Phil Taylor