Croc to get the chop at Open Day

Visitors can discover what lies beneath the skin of a crocodile at Charles Darwin University’s Casuarina campus Open Day on August 24.

The popular dissecting workshop will reveal that a crocodile’s teeth are not the only things that are superior to humans.

Tertiary Enabling Program Bioscience Unit Coordinator, Dr James Valentine said the heart of a crocodile functioned unlike a human heart, in that it could partially shut itself down.

“Crocodiles are part of life in the Top End and people are naturally curious about them,” Dr Valentine said.

He said he would inflate the dissected crocodile’s lungs and show visitors its stomach contents during the workshop.

Dr Valentine would then invite visitors to take a closer look at the specimen.

“Some people will walk in and then walk straight out, but others just can’t look away,” Dr Valentine said.

“If you can understand about how crocodiles’ bodies work, you can develop a better appreciation for them.”

He said the workshop reflected CDU’s Tertiary Enabling Program Bioscience unit, which offered pathways into further study areas, such as nursing, midwifery, and exercise and sport science.

The Open Day workshop will be part of many workshops and activities on offer to showcase the array of courses and research at CDU.

Visitors can also watch how Lego robots move with the click of a Smartphone at the Engineering and Information Technology stall.

Other workshops include a mock courtroom trial and Wing Chung Kung Fu martial arts training, and budding pharmacists can learn how to make their own hand-cream and dispense medication.

The Northern Territory’s first Structural Load Testing Facility, built to assist industry to test the durability of a building’s structure against the NT’s extreme weather, also will be on display.

Workshop spaces are limited. People interested in joining a workshop can register at W: cdu.edu.au/openday/