Dr Karl enthrals Brisbane youngsters

St Peter’s Lutheran College students Amelia Morris and Luke Boggon could hardly believe it when television personality Dr Karl Kruszelnicki started talking about penguins dancing on ice and cats jumping out of tall buildings.

But it was these fascinating tales of science and sustainability – and the important message behind them - that these Year 4 classmates will remember for years to come.

Amelia and Luke were among more than 435 primary school students who converged on USQ Springfield last week (Friday, July 30), for the Junior Sustainability Conference.

The event featured a presentation by author and Great Moments in Science commentator, Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, who enthralled the youngsters with stories about science and sustainability issues.

'He was great, I loved his talk,' Amelia said.

Dr Karl said he had enjoyed his first 'foggy' visit to Springfield and joked that he had 'messed with the kids’ minds'.

'But seriously, we’ve done a bad thing for the kids; we’ve hit them with a crisis with climate change,” he said. Now we have to give them some awareness and understanding of the problems that they will face in the future, without bombarding them with too much information.'

Ranger James Fitzpatrick, from Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, engaged the students in an interactive presentation about Sustainable Park Management and the role of the service in preserving animals, flora and fauna.

USQ Springfield Faculty of Business Associate Dean, Professor Marie Kavanagh, said the conference, now in its second year, had become an important annual event in the University’s calendar.

'In particular, the conference kick-starts the ‘Our Space A Better Place’ project,' Professor Kavanagh said.

'This project is designed to engage children and their teachers to work together to create an activity or project in their own school or community, to make a better place.

'Last year we had five schools take part, this year 12 schools have signed up to take part in making a space in their school or community a better place.'

While there is prize money of $750 for the winning school, eight school finalists will each receive $250.

'Last year we were blown away by the initiative and energy of the school children who took part…with worm farms, gardens, ponds, and clean usable spaces created where previously piles of rubbish has existed,' Professor Kavanagh said.

She also thanked the major sponsors for the event Springfield Land Corporation and Ipswich City Council and the staff from Bunnings Hardware, who set up several worm farms as a static display.

'Four schools were rewarded with a worm farm as a prize on the day,' she said.

'With the newly created Centre for Sustainable Business and Development located at Springfield campus, sustainability issues are set to remain high on the University of Queensland’s agenda and conferences such as the Junior Sustainability Conference are designed to provide education particularly for young people in this area.'