TAG 166 - Geological Society of Australia

A late report — another universityhonours a geologistFor various reasons this pieceof news, of minor historicalsignificance, has escaped thenotice of most Australiangeologists. It happened about ayear ago on 3 February 2012.Australian universities havebeen slow to commemorategeologists who have taught at orattended particular establishments.The University of Sydneyerected a ‘custom-built’ GeologySchool in 1960, named forEdgeworth David, and proceededto demolish it in 2005 to make wayfor a new Law School. Fortunately, on this second occasion it took thedesires of David’s then living grand-daughter to rename ‘Old Geology’the ‘Edgeworth David Building’. This was an appropriate enough move,seeing that David had been instrumental in its planning and constructionin 1895. An earlier distinguished former Professor of Geology, ArchibaldLiversidge, continues to get the cold shoulder at the university.I’m not sure if the building at the University of New England namedfor Leo Cotton by the first Professor of Geology, Alan Voisey, at the timeUNE cut its ties with Sydney, still exists. Dorothy Hill at least has a libraryin her name at Queensland, and of course, Douglas Mawson is honouredat Adelaide. I think McCoy gets a mention at Melbourne, and Woolnoughlikewise at WA.However the 2012 naming was quite different for it took place at auniversity that teaches little or no science, let alone geology. So what isthe link?The name is the Tenison Woods House of the Australian CatholicUniversity, at its North Sydney (MacKillop) Campus. The link is, of coursesimple. Julian Edmund Tenison Woods (1832–1889), a Catholic priest,when in South Australia was the mentor of the young Mary MacKillopin her early years founding the Sisters of St Joseph (1866), an orderdesigned to ensure education of the underprivileged.Woods needs little introduction to those familiar with his Australiangeology work, which notably included karst, volcanic and metamorphicstudies in South Australia, and mineral studies in the Northern Territory,Malaya (as it then was) and Japan.The fine, renovated numerous-storey building was given a goodopening, thanks to the local member, Joe Hockey, and also received areligious blessing at the hand of Cardinal Pell. There was a certain ironyin the latter event, as Woods was somewhat on the outer with thechurch hierarchy at the time of his death in 1889, although CardinalMoran did preside at his funeral Mass at St Marys Cathedral. Howevertime has seen him well and truly rehabilitated!Descendants of Woods’s brother and several of his biographersattended the 2012 renaming ceremony.DAVID BRANAGANCase studies sought fortext book supplementDear Geoscience Colleagues,The highly successful Teacher Earth Science Education Programme(TESEP) is seeking your assistance.We are collaborating with Earth Science Western Australia (ESWA)to produce case studies that complement their fantastic Earth andEnvironmental Science (EES) text book.By updating with Australia-wide examples, the book will moreeffectively help all Australian teachers when the new AustralianCurriculum EES course for Years 11–12 is rolled out in a few years. TESEPis encouraging nationwide adoption of this text. By providing additionalcomplementary case studies we are helping to ensure it is of maximumuse across the country.The book has 19 chapters and we are looking for excellent Australianexamples for many areas of text. Each case study will consist of two tosix pages including research, diagrams, maps and activities. The chaptersaddress minerals, fossils, geological time, plate tectonics, geohazards,energy, resources and the three rock types. Chapters also embrace soils,water, weather, climate change, human activity, ecosystems andbio-diversity. A complete overview is available on the TESEP website athttp://www.tesep.org.au/casestudies.html.However, we are not seeking to rewrite the curriculum! You maythink there are sections of the book missing but it is written to meetthe WA EES curriculum requirements. It will also be revised to meet thenational EES curriculum even better in due course, but either way it willnot cover all possible content. Consequently, if you think you havematerial that does not fit the chapter headings do not be discouraged.The content touched on under those headings is wide-ranging and manyless-obvious connections can be made as a result.I will be personally contacting those in the geoscience communityI know may be able to provide or easily develop some of the materialrequired — but I encourage one and all to help.If you have anything of your own or are aware of materials thatmight suit our needs please contact me as soon as possible. Obviously,we need to be sure that there are no copyright restrictions on thematerials you provide. However, even if you contribute just one classicphoto of a particular geological phenomenon, the Australian teachingfraternity and all future students will be very grateful and yourcontribution will be acknowledged.Needless to say, in order to ensure national appeal the case studieswill need to have national geographic spread. This means we may havethe unenviable task of choosing some over others for the first batch ofcase studies that we hope to have finalised by October 2013. However,since the case studies are likely to be delivered online we should be ableto continually add them to the ESWA and TESEP websites as they arewritten up and inform teachers by email and newsletters.GREG MCNAMARAExecutive Officer of the Teacher Earth ScienceEducation ProgrammeEmail eo@tesep.org.auMobile 0412 211 797TAG March 2013| 19