Overview
This unit is concerned with the in vivo responses of plants to the environment. There is coverage of structure and function of the whole plant.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
BOTN11004 Foundation Plant Biology or BIOL11100 Functional Biology
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 1 - 2017
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes – in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Residential Schools
This unit has a Compulsory Residential School for distance mode students and the details are:
Click here to see your Residential School Timetable.
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University’s Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure – Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure – International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback – Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from Student comments.
Lecturer needs to speak more slowly.
When lecturing, I'll be more conscious of my speaking pace.
I spoke more slowly and there were no complaints this year about my caffeine intake.
Feedback from Student comments.
Students felt there was too much content in the residential school.
Remove the hydroponics project from next year's residential school. This will allow students to focus more on the diurnal experiment and growth analysis without having them miss out on content.
The hydroponics unit was removed with the results that there was more time to focus effectively on the other components of residential school.
Feedback from Student comments.
Exams were fair and students liked having a second go at quizzes — this gave them incentive to study more.
Maintain the two attempt quiz and length/point structure of final exam.
This was maintained and I continue to receive positive feedback about this approach to quizzes.
Feedback from Student comments.
Text book, online readings and course materials need to be more closely aligned.
I recommend investigating a new textbook for students. In the meantime, keep the online textbook (students appreciate a free text) but more closely align the lectures, readings and practicals through better signposting in all three and on moodle.
The online textbook was kept, but my reasoning for keeping it was better explained at the beginning of the unit.
- Describe and illustrate the principal physiological processes of angiosperms as an integrated system.
- Apply knowledge of plant physiology in real life situations in agriculture, forestry and vegetation management.
- Conduct plant physiology experiments, write experimental reports in the correct format and critique existing reports.
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Online Quiz(zes) - 10% | |||
| 2 - Written Assessment - 25% | |||
| 3 - Practical Assessment - 25% | |||
| 4 - Examination - 40% | |||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Communication | |||
| 2 - Problem Solving | |||
| 3 - Critical Thinking | |||
| 4 - Information Literacy | |||
| 5 - Team Work | |||
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | |||
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | |||
| 8 - Ethical practice | |||
| 9 - Social Innovation | |||
| 10 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | |||
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | |
| 1 - Online Quiz(zes) - 10% | ||||||||||
| 2 - Written Assessment - 25% | ||||||||||
| 3 - Practical Assessment - 25% | ||||||||||
| 4 - Examination - 40% | ||||||||||
Textbooks
Plants in Action
Edition: 1st (1999)
Authors: Atwell, Kriedeman, turnbull
on line at http://plantsinaction.science.uq.edu.au/edition1/?q=content/title-page
Australia
Binding: Paperback
Plant Physiology
Edition: 4th (1992)
Authors: Salisbury and Ross
Wadsworth
Belmont Belmont , CA , USA
Binding: Hardcover
Additional Textbook Information
The text Salisbury and Ross 1992 (4th Edition, Wadsworth Publishing) is a highly recommended reading (it was a prescribed text in previous years).
The text 'Plants in Action' is produced by the Australian Society of Plant Scientists and is available on-line (at http://plantsinaction.science.uq.edu.au/edition1/?q=content/title-page). It is no longer available for purchase in hardcopy form. Its strength is in its Australian examples and authors, while its weakness is its electronic formatting and lesser 'detail'.
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing style: Harvard (author-date)
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
n.english@cqu.edu.au
Module/Topic
Introduction & Overview
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Seed dormancy and germination
Chapter
Study Guide Module 1
Plants in Action: Chapters 8.1.1, 8.1.2 and case study 8.1 (pp 254-256 and 596-598)
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Water potential
Chapter
Study Guide Module 2
Plants in Action: Chapters 4.3.1, 5.1 and 5.2.1 to 5.2.6 and 15.1 (over the next three weeks)
Skim 4.3.2 and 4.3.3
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 2 Quiz closes Monday night.
Module/Topic
Water uptake and transport
Chapter
Study Guide Module 3
Plants in Action: Chapters 4.3.1, 5.1 and 5.2.1 to 5.2.6 and 15.1
Skim 4.3.2 and 4.3.3
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 3 Quiz closes Monday night.
Module/Topic
Water relations (No Lecture this week)
Chapter
Plants in Action: Chapters 4.3.1, 5.1 and 5.2.1 to 5.2.6 and 15.1
Skim 4.3.2 and 4.3.3
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 4 Quiz closes Monday night.
Compulsory Residential School is scheduled in Rockhampton April 6 to 9, 2017.
(Optional) Hardcopy draft of Discussing and Quantifying Plant Processes due at beginning of Res School.
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Mineral nutrition
Chapter
Study Guide Module 4
Plants in Action: Chapters 4 and 16
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Nitrogen and sulphur
Chapter
Study Guide Module 5
Plants in Action: Chapters 4 and 16
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 6 Quiz closes Monday night.
Module/Topic
Photosynthesis
Chapter
Study Guide Module 6
Plants in Action: Chapters 2.1 to 2.3, 12.1 to 12.6, 13.1, 13.2 and 13.5
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 7 Quiz closes Monday night.
Module/Topic
Carbohydrate metabolism
Chapter
Study Guide Module 7
Plants in Action: Chapters 2.4 and 11.3 to 11.7
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 8 Quiz closes Monday night.
Module/Topic
Plant growth regulation
Chapter
Study Guide Module 8
Plants in Action: Chapter 6
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 9 Quiz closes Monday night.
Discussing and Quantifying Plant Processes Due: Week 10 Friday (19 May 2017) 11:45 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Plant growth modelling - bringing it all together
Chapter
Plants in Action: Chapters 14 and 15.2 to 15.5
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 10 Quiz closes Monday night.
Module/Topic
Review
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 11 Quiz closes Monday night.
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
1 Online Quiz(zes)
On-line quizzes are associated with most weeks of activity in Moodle. The quizzes are designed to test that you have done the reading and understood the concepts associated with the previous weeks' learning. As items of continuous assessment, each quiz is of small ‘value', but understanding each week’s material will lead to better assessment and exam scores!
For each quiz: there is no time limit; 1 reattempt of a quiz is allowed but not required; there is a 20 minute enforced time period between attempts; an average of your attempts will be recorded as the grade for that quiz.
The questions in each quiz are taken from a question bank, so you may not get the same questions the second time you take the quiz.
10
Weekly
Quizzes open Monday from Week 2 to Week 12 and close before midnight the following Monday.
Automated marking - but I expect some discussion each week of uncertain answers.
Each quiz (except Quiz 1) is composed of multiple choice questions and will be automatically marked as correct or incorrect. There are some essay questions in the Week 1 Quiz, but these will be marked for completeness, not the correct answer.
- Describe and illustrate the principal physiological processes of angiosperms as an integrated system.
- Apply knowledge of plant physiology in real life situations in agriculture, forestry and vegetation management.
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Information Technology Competence
2 Written Assessment
The Discussing and Quantifying Plant Processes assessment is comprised of short tasks, including calculations and descriptive/interpretive short answers. It will cover material presented in Weeks 1 - 10. The specific questions will be posted on the Moodle site by the end of Week 2. Start this assessment right away and keep on top of it. Don't wait for the last week to do it!
Week 10 Friday (19 May 2017) 11:45 pm AEST
Week 12 Friday (2 June 2017)
This assessment is meant to check and demonstrate your progress in various plant topics covered in the course to the point of submission.
For calculation based tasks, marks are awarded for:
1. a statement of the principle and key relationship (20%);
2. clear step by step calculations, with explanation and unit analysis (60%);
3. the correct numerical answer (20%).
For descriptive/interpretative tasks cite and reference relevant supporting information and interpret it in the context of your response to the question asked. Marks are awarded for:
1. the quality of the background review, including a definition of the topic (30%);
2. the discussion of this information in context of the question asked (50%);
3. and the clarity of English expression, spelling, grammar, accuracy of referencing, appropriate length (20%).
Please submit your answers in a Word document (doc, docx or rtf). PDF documents will NOT be accepted. You can perform calculations or draw figures by hand and insert them as images (e.g. jpegs) in the word document. If you don’t have a scanner – take a photo on your mobile phone. You must make sure we know what question you're answering by putting the question number in front of the text. Please consider redrafting your calculations for clarity before photographing/scanning them. Blurred or blank images are not acceptable.
- Describe and illustrate the principal physiological processes of angiosperms as an integrated system.
- Apply knowledge of plant physiology in real life situations in agriculture, forestry and vegetation management.
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
3 Practical Assessment
Two practical reports (1000 words each, excluding references, figure captions, tables and title page) are required in the format of scientific papers/technical reports and each describing one of the experiments undertaken at residential school (i.e. two reports, each one detailing one of the experiments undertaken at res school). You may select which two experiments you report on. They are stand alone reports, but should be submitted as one document (with one section for each report).
Week 6 Friday (21 Apr 2017) 11:45 pm AEST
Week 8 Friday (5 May 2017)
The reports will not be assessed on the 'success' of the experiment. Assessment will be based on:
1. structure (as a scientific report, with Title, Abstract, Intro, Materials and Methods, Results and Discussion);
2. demonstration and explanation of calculations, with explanation of units in each step;
3. interpretation of data in the discussion section, with reference to existing knowledge.
Please submit your answers in a Word document (doc, docx or rtf). PDF documents will NOT be accepted. You can perform calculations or draw figures by hand and insert them as images (e.g. jpegs) in the word document. If you don’t have a scanner – take a photo on your mobile phone. You must make sure we know what question you're answering by putting the question number in front of the text. Please consider redrafting your calculations for clarity before photographing/scanning them. Blurred or blank images in the word document are not acceptable.
- Describe and illustrate the principal physiological processes of angiosperms as an integrated system.
- Apply knowledge of plant physiology in real life situations in agriculture, forestry and vegetation management.
- Conduct plant physiology experiments, write experimental reports in the correct format and critique existing reports.
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Team Work
- Information Technology Competence
- Cross Cultural Competence
- Ethical practice
Examination
Dictionary - non-electronic, concise, direct translation only (dictionary must not contain any notes or comments).
As a CQUniversity student you are expected to act honestly in all aspects of your academic work.
Any assessable work undertaken or submitted for review or assessment must be your own work. Assessable work is any type of work you do to meet the assessment requirements in the unit, including draft work submitted for review and feedback and final work to be assessed.
When you use the ideas, words or data of others in your assessment, you must thoroughly and clearly acknowledge the source of this information by using the correct referencing style for your unit. Using others’ work without proper acknowledgement may be considered a form of intellectual dishonesty.
Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in your university study ensures the CQUniversity qualification you earn will be valued as a true indication of your individual academic achievement and will continue to receive the respect and recognition it deserves.
As a student, you are responsible for reading and following CQUniversity’s policies, including the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure. This policy sets out CQUniversity’s expectations of you to act with integrity, examples of academic integrity breaches to avoid, the processes used to address alleged breaches of academic integrity, and potential penalties.
What is a breach of academic integrity?
A breach of academic integrity includes but is not limited to plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, cheating, contract cheating, and academic misconduct. The Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure defines what these terms mean and gives examples.
Why is academic integrity important?
A breach of academic integrity may result in one or more penalties, including suspension or even expulsion from the University. It can also have negative implications for student visas and future enrolment at CQUniversity or elsewhere. Students who engage in contract cheating also risk being blackmailed by contract cheating services.
Where can I get assistance?
For academic advice and guidance, the Academic Learning Centre (ALC) can support you in becoming confident in completing assessments with integrity and of high standard.
What can you do to act with integrity?
