CQUniversity Unit Profile.

This assessment task consists of online quizzes designed to evaluate your progressive understanding of core theoretical frameworks, field methodologies, and resource management strategies in applied ecology. The task focuses on your ability to recall and apply fundamental ecological principles, interpret environmental data, and apply conceptual models to practical scenarios.

The assessment is structured into three distinct thematic blocks designed to assess your learning across the term:

Theme 1: Foundational Monitoring and Ecological Indicators (Weeks 2, 3, and 4). This section evaluates your understanding of the principles of environmental monitoring design, the logistics of monitoring at scale (including manual field and advanced technological methods), and the selection and application of robust ecological indicators.
Theme 2: Marine Food Webs and Catchment Dynamics (Weeks 5, 8, and 9). This section examines the structural and trophic dynamics of marine systems, the ecological impacts of exploiting marine food webs with reference to wild capture fisheries, and the biophysical interactions within catchments, focusing heavily on how upstream land management influences downstream aquatic environments.
Theme 3: Applied Forestry and Wildlife and Conservation (Weeks 10 and 11). The final section tests your knowledge of applied forestry and silvicultural, and wildlife conservation frameworks.

The 72-hour grace period does not apply to this assessment.

Level of GenAI use allowed:
Level 1: You must not use Al at any point during the assessment. You must demonstrate your core skills and knowledge.

Students will be evaluated on their cumulative understanding of unit content through a series of periodic online assessments. Marks will be allocated based on the following specific criteria:

• Accuracy and Technical Correctness
• Completeness and Scientific Rigor
• Application of Correct Discipline Specific Knowledge

Students are permitted one (1) attempt per quiz. Once a quiz is started, it must be completed within the allocated time window. Each quiz evaluates learning from the previous weeks of study material. Missing a quiz window without an approved extension will result in a mark of zero for that quiz.

Academic Integrity and Misconduct: This assessment measures individual student capability and understanding. Under no circumstances are students permitted to share quiz questions, screenshots, draft responses, or final answers with peers, online forums, or generative AI platforms. Collusion, unauthorised collaboration, or distributing assessment questions constitutes a direct breach of university academic integrity policies, and may result in formal academic misconduct penalties.

This task requires you to translate raw fisheries data into formal scientific communication. Using data collected during the residential school, you will investigate the age and growth demographics of three teleost fish species.

This task evaluates your technical proficiency across: 

• Sample Analysis: Examine fish scales under a microscope to identify age markers.
• Growth Modeling: Perform back-calculations to determine year-to-year growth, and apply the Von Bertalanffy growth equation to calculate lifetime growth trajectories.
• Reporting: Synthesise your findings into a technical publication (formatted either as a peer-reviewed manuscript or a professional Government agency report).

Submission Requirements:
Your final report must include publication-quality data visualisations, sound statistical justifications, and a structured discussion that contextualises your data within current primary scientific literature. To guide you through the technical writing and analysis process, a dedicated data interpretation session will be held at the end of the residential school practical. This session will cover data organisation, statistical mechanics, and structural expectations for your final submission.

Level of GenAI use allowed:
Level 2: You may use Al for planning, idea development, and research. Your final submission should show how you have developed and refined these ideas.

Submissions will be rigorously evaluated against a comprehensive rubric available on the unit Moodle.

The assessment framework is structured around the following key areas:

• Scientific Rigor, Completeness, and Methodology: Clear and systemic reporting of all relevant field or laboratory observations, data-collection steps, and analytical tools utilised during the residential school. Correct execution of quantitative data processing, including the mathematical modeling of teleost fish growth trajectories and cohort dynamics.
• Critical Discussion and Industry Application: A sophisticated evaluation of the generated results, directly contextualizing findings within modern, peer-reviewed fisheries management literature and predictive growth modeling frameworks. Critical discussion detailing how teleost growth assessments apply directly to the management of exploited wild stocks or aquaculture systems, explicitly highlighting the structural limitations of the models deployed.
• Structural Mechanics and Professional Presentation: Professional curation of all technical data displays. Figures, data, tables, and spatial diagrams must be formatted to industry/academic publication standards. Flawless inline referencing of all figures, tables, and data models within the main body text. High-level clarity, logical sequence of arguments, advanced sentence structure, and precise scientific grammar and punctuation.
• Constraints and Reference Mechanics: Meticulous application of the author-date citation style (Harvard Referencing Framework) across both inline citations and the final bibliography, utilizing current and authoritative academic literature. Strict adherence to the professional threshold of a 2,000-word limit (excluding data tables and reference lists).

Further details of the assessment criteria and rubric will be available on the unit Moodle and discussed with students at the conclusion of the Residential School.

In this assessment task, you will step into the role of an environmental consultant or wildlife ecologist to conduct a microchiropteran (microbat) survey using industry standard bioacoustic monitoring technology. Utilising real-world ultrasonic data collected using Anabat detectors, you will use industry-standard analysis software to process, analyse, and identify echolocation calls.

This task evaluates your technical proficiency across biological species classification, biotic signal processing, and ecological data visualization. Your analysis and subsequent technical brief will require you to execute the following steps:

• Acoustic Filter Engineering: Design and implement customised data filters within Anabat Insight analysis software to isolate high-quality bat calls, systematically removing structural environmental background noise (e.g., wind, insect noise, vegetation feedback). Filter design will be via a combination of the use of known species-specific call metrics and the use of Generative Design (AI). 
• Species Identification (ID): Analyse call parameters, such as call type, characteristic frequency, slope, and duration, against regional reference keys to compile an accurate inventory of the microbat species present. Identified calls will then be referenced against voucher calls held by the Australian Bat Acoustic Call Library (Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network, https://ecoacoustics.tern.org.au/). 
• Metrics Extraction: Quantify the total volume of recorded calls and map distinct temporal activity patterns (e.g., peak activity times).
• Final Deliverable Structure: You will synthesise your methodology and findings into a concise Bioacoustic Survey Technical Brief.

Your submission must include:

• Formal documentation of the parameters of each bioacoustic filter used and the logic in your design process.
• A comprehensive species inventory matrix outlining the species found.
• Data visualisations (graphs/charts) illustrating absolute call frequencies, temporal activity patterns, and call abundance.
• A brief ecological discussion referencing local biodiversity frameworks or guidelines (e.g., Queensland state survey standards).

To assist you with the task of writing up, general assistance with the interpretation and analysis of data will be provided at the conclusion of the activity  during the Residential School.

Level of GenAI use allowed:
Level 2: You may use Al for planning, idea development, and research. Your final submission should show how you have developed and refined these ideas.

Submissions will be evaluated against professional environmental consultancy and conventional scientific standards.

Marks are allocated across the following four integrated performance criteria:

1. Scientific Rigor, Completeness, and Methodology: Systematic and complete reporting of all relevant field observations, data-collection steps, and software filters engineered within Anabat Insight. Explicit inclusion of all relevant methods, baseline observations, and data sets relating to the assessment of species diversity. Analytical accuracy relating to precise species inventories and accurate species-specific data.

2. Critical Discussion and Ecological Contextualisation: A sophisticated evaluation of your findings contextualised directly within current, peer-reviewed literature regarding ecological sampling techniques that seek to measure and quantify species diversity. Critical discussion regarding how the assessment of species diversity and specific habitat classifications apply to ecological management and/or conservation initiatives. Objective Assessment of differences in species temporal and/or spatial differences in habit use. Clear, scientifically sound evaluation of the operational scope, biases, and structural limitations of the deployed sampling technologies and bioacoustic filters.

3. Structural Mechanics and Professional Presentation: Publication quality figures and tables of all technical data displays. Species diversity matrices, software filter logic logs, activity histograms, and data tables must be formatted cleanly to publication standards, featuring descriptive captions and clear axis labeling. Correct inline referencing and cross-referencing of all figures, tables, and diagrams within the main narrative body. High-level clarity, logical organization, advanced sentence sequencing, and precise scientific grammar, syntax, and punctuation. Correct application of the author-date citation style (Harvard Referencing Framework) across all inline citations and the final bibliography, utilising current, authoritative, and relevant academic literature.

Further details of the assessment criteria and rubric will be available on the unit Moodle and discussed with students at the conclusion of the Residential School.