You will be graded in this assessment on your constructive participation rather than solely on the accuracy of your answer (because there will be no single correct or complete answer possible).

Note that 'constructive participation' is defined here as providing a reasoned rationale based on environmental science principles and supported by evidence (not just stating agreement or disagreement with the topic question), and means a post must include relevant information from cited, peer-reviewed articles or government websites. Quantitative information and citation of relevant scientific journal articles in your answer is a requirement for full marks (engage with the data and use them to support your answer).

Note that the Week 1 forum is not graded but please contribute just the same. You should participate constructively and within the relevant time frames in the remaining 5 forums to score full marks (i.e., at 4 marks per forum for a maximum 20% of total unit marks).

• 1 mark — typically response(s) marred by multiple simple spelling or grammatical mistakes and/or is disorganised without clear points made or obvious reasoning and/or is a brief and superficial treatment of the issue or shows little relevance and no citation of sources;
• 2 marks — typically response(s) marred by several spelling or grammatical errors and/or by no citation of sources, and only a few relevant points or arguments made (or more made but insubstantially) often not integrated well;
• 3 marks — typically response(s) displaying only a few spelling or grammatical errors, otherwise well-organised and considered/reasoned, exploring the issue adequately but no quantitative data or sources are limited to only textbooks and generalist websites and the like; and
• 4 marks — typically response(s) display only a couple of spelling or grammatical errors, concise and excellent organisation of clear, salient and reasoned points and arguments exploring an issue in depth, and supported by quantitative data and citing numerous scientific sources and in the proper manner.

Please note there is a minimum achievement level set for this assessment task, i.e., you must equal or exceed the set minimum achievement level for this assessment in order to be considered for a passing grade for the course overall (irrespective of your achievement level in other assessment activities).

This assessment task requires you to identify an important environmental issue in your local area that fits within one of our weekly topics in the unit, and to submit a video presentation of its cause (or causes), effects, and the most likely possible solution.

Your video presentation should be five (5) minutes long (±10% or 30 seconds).

There will be three broad components you will have to consider for this assessment:

1. Choice of suitable topic - fits within one of our weekly unit topics, a small enough topic to be adequately covered in 5 minutes (cause/effect/solution) and big enough to fill the 5 minute presentation without padding etc.;
2. Being entirely scientific and dispassionate in your approach to content (no value-laden language), including the use of relevant scientific concepts and terms (this will require considerable planning and research, e.g., construction of a script); and
3. Production of a reasonable video presentation (that will involve practice and shot planning so quality of the video production does not detract from the content).

Note that you are not expected to become a professional videographer or video editor, but there must be an adequate level of continuity to your submission.

Submissions will be assessed on the criteria in the table below (roughly content 56%, presentation 44%):

Please note a minimum achievement level is set for this assessment activity (i.e., you must equal or exceed this set minimum achievement level for you to be considered for a passing grade for this unit overall, irrespective of your achievement in other assessment components in this unit).

The Online End of Term Quiz is a total of 40 marks. The marks are divided among three (3) questions total: two (2) Short Answer questions at 5 marks each; and one (1) Long Answer question for 30 marks. You must complete both (2) Short Answer questions for 10 marks total (5 marks each).


You must complete only one (1) of the Long Answer Questions (30 marks total). You will be provided three (3) Long Answer Questions to pick from (select the Long Answer question you are most comfortable answering). You must only attempt to answer one Long Answer Question (1). The short and long answer questions are each pulled randomly from a question bank of equally difficult questions of the same type. You have 3 hours to complete the quiz once you begin it.

The quiz opens at 5AM AEST on Monday of Review/Exam Week (unless you have an approved extension request) and closes at 5AM AEST the next day day. I have allowed 20 minutes to complete the Short Answer questions, another 30 minutes to read all three (3) Long Answer questions and then just over 2 hours to complete one (1) of the long answer questions that you select. You must begin the quiz 3 hours before it closes to get the full time to complete the quiz.

This is a TIMED, OPEN BOOK/INTERNET quiz. You may use any resources at your disposal, but the answers must be your own and in your own words (please see the CQU policy on Academic Misconduct). You may not use LLM/AI tools to provide draft answers. You may not work in groups or with others. I recommend you refer to the previous Fortnightly Assessable Question pages for ideas or sources, but do not copy or paraphrase those answers.

I strongly recommend you write your answers in a word processing program and then cut and paste the answers into the quiz when they are complete. You may also wish to have a calculator handy. Remember to answer the questions asked, and to clearly annotate what question you are answering, (e.g. "Part (a)"). Use properly cited sources to clearly support your position if they are required.

For the Short Answer questions, I am only looking for correctness of the answer (you do NOT need to provide sources, proofread, etc).

The criteria for the Long Answer questions are similar to those for the Fortnightly Assessable Questions except that the marks structure differs and there is NO WORD LIMIT and there is less emphasis on spelling/grammar (except as it impedes understanding).

• 1 to 8 marks: typically response(s) with spelling or grammatical mistakes that impede understanding and/or is disorganised without clear points made or obvious reasoning and/or is a brief and superficial treatment of the issue or shows little relevance with no citation of sources;
• 9 to 17 marks: typically response(s) with spelling or grammatical mistakes that impede understanding and/or by no citation of sources, and only a few relevant points or arguments made (or more made but insubstantially) often not integrated well;
• 18 to 24 marks: typically response(s) with spelling or grammatical mistakes that do not impede understanding, otherwise well-organised and considered/reasoned, exploring the issue adequately but no quantitative data or sources are limited and only textbooks and generalist websites and the like; and
• 24 to 30 marks: typically response(s) with spelling or grammatical mistakes that do not impede understanding, concise and excellent organisation of clear, salient and reasoned points and arguments exploring the issue in depth, and supported by quantitative data and citing numerous scientific sources and in the proper manner.