CQUniversity welcomed 27 members of the University of the Third Age (U3A) as they dined at Capricornia College and then toured the School of Nursing and Midwifery this week.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Scott Bowman is the patron of U3A - a group of local retired people who come together to learn on an informal basis to extend their intellect and knowledge just for pleasure.

Dr Kerry Reid-Searl shows off some of the new technology used to teach nursing students.Dining with the residential students of Capricornia College gave many members a spring in their step and a sneaky twinkle in their eye as they discovered dessert ‘hidden' in the fridge. The food was excellent and one of the members was heard saying, "I wish I'd known the food would be so good - I'm supposed to be hosting a family dinner tonight and I can't fit another thing in!"

The tour then moved to the School of Nursing and Midwifery to meet Associate Professor Kerry Reid-Searl, Loretto Quinney and Kadie Cheney. Loretto took the group through the Pulse Points using the Macarena tune, getting the group up to sing and dance in the aisles of the lecture theatre.

Kadie used Smarties to explain the knowledge paradigms of empiricism, interpretivism and critical thinking - leaving the group in a dilemma after acknowledging who the Smartie would benefit if they ate it.

Kerry and Cyril (Kerry's MASK-Ed character) talked about student learning with high fidelity simulation, giving the group the chance for much nodding and smiling as they recognised themselves, or colleagues, in Cyril's mannerisms.

The tour finished with a look inside the nursing Labs and the knowledge that real people are used for ‘patient' teaching. There were some retired nurses in the group who still identified with their nursing days and were keen to contribute by volunteering to be ‘patients'.

U3A members were very appreciative of their time on campus and were keen to organise another tour later in the year.

Learning for pleasure - a pretty good goal it seems...