A Constructivist Approach to Climate Change Teaching and Learning

It is now broadly acknowledged that climate change due to an enhanced Greenhouse Effect is underway and such change will have major implications for our societies and environments. This paper outlines a pedagogical approach devised to encourage learning and critical thinking about climate change. A constructivist approach to teaching and learning is applied to stimulate analysis of potential impacts of climate change on systems familiar to secondary school students in South Australia. The problem‐based method guides students through a conceptualisation of the implications of environmental change. Students at Woodcroft College, when given the opportunity to examine the potential climate change impacts on a local coastal ecosystem, found the method to be both challenging and engaging. The exercise concluded with students discussing possible personal behavioural and broader societal responses to reduce the impacts of future climate change. The paper contends that such teaching to support students to become resilient young adults will be vital in a future world of environmental risk.     

“Proto–Tantric” Elements in The Gandavyuha‐sutra*

Although a Māhāyana sūtra, the clearly contains a number of elements that seem to presage the “tantric” phase in Indian Buddhism. In particular, the sūtra contains four components worthy of note: elaborate scenes detailing what can best be understood as , a soteriology based on absolute faith in the spiritual guides, a strong insinuation of organisational esotericism, and the hint of sexual yoga. After briefly summarising some recent scholarship on the , the author addresses each of the four “proto‐tantric” components in detail. Following this, the author concludes with the suggestion that despite the inherent difficulties in developing a relative chronology of Indian Buddhist literature, close readings such as provided in this article may be useful in generating data sets, which can then be used to relate Indian Buddhist texts to each other.     

Fringe explosions: risk and vulnerability in Canada's new in‐between urban landscape

This article argues that a new landscape of urbanization takes shape in Canadian cities. In‐between the old downtowns and the new suburbs of urban Canada, a hitherto underexposed and under‐researched mix of residential, commercial, industrial, educational, agricultural and ecologically protected areas and land uses has become the home and workplace, and increasingly also the playspace of most people in Canada. The article examines this new landscape through the lens of the specific risks and vulnerabilities experienced by its inhabitants and users. Using a propane gas explosion in Toronto in the summer of 2008 as an example, we demonstrate that the ‘in‐between city’ is a space of great complexity, which has grown haphazardly and in a contradictory fashion, where, in contrast to the archetype of inner city and suburb, no clear spatial imaginary has been guiding urban development. This leads to always uncomfortable and sometimes dangerous proximities between various and competing uses and social practices. This is nowhere as clear as it is in the splintered urban infrastructures that service this landscape or use the in‐between city's space to service other adjacent or distant purposes.     

Anglican–Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) and the Eucharist: Review and Prospects

This article reviews the history of the important dialogue on the Eucharist by the Anglican–Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) underway since the second half of the twentieth century and continuing into the present. Agreed statements from the commission addressing the Eucharist and comments from various bodies of both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Church are critically reviewed. Prospects for future dialogue are assessed and suggestions made about areas that may be the subject of future dialogue.     

TOWARDS A QUANTITATIVE PETROGRAPHIC DATABASE OF KHMER STONE MATERIALS—KOH KER STYLE SCULPTURE

A comprehensive quantitative petrographic database of sandstones used by the Khmers for sculptural purposes would be a helpful tool for archaeologists, museum curators and others interested in pursuing research on early stone usage, geological source and provenance. Towards that end, this paper presents quantitative petrographic analysis of stone materials used in the production of some free‐standing sculptures and architectural elements in the Koh Ker style of the 10th century from the collections of the National Museum of Cambodia and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. These materials are compared to samples from the quarry of Thmâ Anlong near the foothills of the Phnom Kulen, Sieam Reap province. Primary and secondary detrital modes and key grain‐size parameters are used to identify three sandstone types. The free‐standing sculptures are carved from feldspathic arenite and feldspato‐lithic to litho‐feldspathic arenite. Finely carved lintels are worked from a quartz arenite, which is significantly richer in quartz grains and of a finer grain size. The geological source of the two other lithotypes will have to await detailed geological survey of the Koh Ker area accompanied by petrographic study of selected samples from documented quarries. The significance and potentiality of quantitative petrographic study of Khmer stone materials are shown in supporting and integrating archaeological investigations in South‐East Asia.     

The Myth of Bondi's Black Sunday

On 6 February 1938, five bathers drowned while swimming between the flags at Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia. In surf lifesaving history, the day is known as Black Sunday. The dominant heroic narrative of Black Sunday highlights freak surf conditions and the gallantry, efficiency, and adeptness of Bondi's volunteer surf lifesavers. In this article I analyse this representation as a myth. Here I employ the French philosopher Roland Barthes' concept of myth, not as a falsehood, but as simplistic story, replete with silences and devoid of critical assessment. I argue that the myth of Black Sunday served the interests of Surf Life Saving Australia well in establishing its status as the country's premier safety service. However, the culture that underpinned that myth still persists with ongoing ramifications for risk assessment at the beach.