Dr Pat Vickers-Rich visits the Monash South Africa campus

3 August 2004

As part of a month-long visit to South Africa and Namibia during July, Dr Pat Vickers-Rich, Foundation Director of the Monash Science Centre at Monash University in Melbourne, spent time at the Monash South Africa campus.

Dr Vickers-Rich and two colleagues - Dr Andre Ivansov and Dr Mikail Fedonkin from the Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow - were in the region to attend conferences and undertake field work.

At the Geoscience Africa 2004 Conference held at the University of the Witwatersrand, from 12 – 16 July 2004, Dr Vickers-Rich delivered a presentation Geoscience in your face: Primary School Geoscience at the Monash Science Centre in Melbourne.

She also presented a paper - together with colleagues Dr Thomas Rich and Andrew Constantine - Polar Dinosaurs from High Southern Latitudes in the late Mesozioc.

The Monash Science Centre was initiated in 1993 to serve as a major public outreach for science communication about how science works – all tied in with the curriculum standards set out by both the federal and state governments of Australia.

The Monash Science Centre strives to bring primary and secondary students and the general public into direct contact with research scientists – and to develop curriculum and other educational materials as well as a variety of programmes that are cooperative efforts of scientists, science educators, teachers, parents and students of all ages.

Monash University has supported this initiative with Monash Development Grants for 1993-2003 of more about $6.5000,000,00 (including the cost of the building). The centre itself generates funds currently of approximately $500 000.00 annually to support such outreach activities.

Outreach programmes for Pre-Tertiary education serve not only Australia, but have extended to Afghanistan, Russia, Argentina and are underway for Timor, Iraq and a number of under-serviced areas of the world.

While visiting the Monash South African campus, Dr Vickers-Rich presented The Science of Teaching Science, to a group of teachers from both independent and state high schools in the Johannesburg area.

She also developed valuable links with a group of primary school science teachers at a morning presentation at St Stithian’s College in Randburg.

“It was a pleasure to meet with primary and secondary teachers at both Monash South Africa and at Geoscience Africa,” said Dr Vickers-Rich. “I hope that, in the not too distant future, I can return and visit more schools.”

“I would also like to develop an arm of the Monash Science Centre based at the Monash South Africa campus that is suited to southern Africa – with the idea in mind of increasing science literacy from the very early years in schools in the area. To me, this is so needed to help the young generation to face the future in an intelligent and sensitive way.”

While at Monash South Africa, Dr Vickers-Rich met and had discussions with the Heads of Schools - as well as the Geography and Environmental Science lecturers.

Dr Vickers-Rich and her colleagues also undertook field research while in the region and gathered photographic material for an exciting new book they are working on, Beyond the edge: The first animals on earth.

“We were delighted to have the opportunity to visit and take photographs at the Walter Sisulu National Botanical Gardens, the Cradle of Mankind and the Lion and Rhino Park – all of which are within easy reach of the Monash South Africa campus,” says Dr Vickers-Rich.

Besides being Foundation Director at the Monash Science Centre, Dr Vickers-Rich is Professor (Personal Chair of Paleontology) at the School of Geosciences at Monash University and is Research Associate, Laboratory of Precambrian Organisms, Paleontological Institute, Moscow.