Overview
This unit uses an historical perspective to examine the interaction between people and their environment in the Australian setting. You will look at the underlying reasons why and how successive generations have used and shaped their natural environment, noting their goals, values and technologies. You will develop skills in using environmental histories as a means of problem solving and for better resource management and policy-making.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
There are no requisites for this unit.
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 2 - 2022
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).
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 Unit Coordinator self reflection
There are many facets to Australian environmental history and not all can be accommodated in this unit. It is timely now to review aspects of this unit's content to explore options for replacing some weekly topics with different topics.
Review the unit content to identify more relevant and interesting aspects of the environmental history field that might then be introduced into the unit, such as fire history.
- Have a basic understanding of a range of human-nature interactions on the Australian continent since pre-European times.
- Have an understanding of how to apply historical data to both the resolution of environmental issues (data such as: documents, government reports, interviews, aerial photographs, remote sensing and images/film) AND to nurturing processes such as 'stakeholder empowerment' in environmental protection.
- Have specific knowledge of some aspect of environmental history in a location and topic of choice.
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment - 50% | |||
| 2 - Written Assessment - 50% | |||
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 - First Nations Knowledges | |||
| 11 - 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 | 11 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment - 50% | |||||||||||
| 2 - Written Assessment - 50% | |||||||||||
Textbooks
There are no required textbooks.
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing styles below:
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
m.danaher@cqu.edu.au
Week 1
Begin Date: 11 Jul 2022Module/Topic
What is environmental history and what are its uses?
Chapter
Moodle - Chapter 1
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 2
Begin Date: 18 Jul 2022Module/Topic
When does environmental history begin and end?
Chapter
Chapter 2
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 3
Begin Date: 25 Jul 2022Module/Topic
Imaginary Environment: Early European perceptions of, and impact on, the Australian environments
Chapter
Chapter 3
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 4
Begin Date: 01 Aug 2022Module/Topic
Dust storm over Melbourne: Soil degradation
Chapter
Chapter 4
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 5
Begin Date: 08 Aug 2022Module/Topic
Dams and damnation: Inland waters management practices and the role of environmental history
Chapter
Chapter 5
Events and Submissions/Topic
Vacation Week
Begin Date: 15 Aug 2022Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 6
Begin Date: 22 Aug 2022Module/Topic
Estuarine mitigation strategies in Queensland and the role of environmental history
Chapter
Chapter 6
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 7
Begin Date: 29 Aug 2022Module/Topic
Forest management and the role of environmental history
Chapter
Chapter 7
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 8
Begin Date: 05 Sep 2022Module/Topic
History of environmental policy making and legislation in Australia
Chapter
Chapter 8
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 9
Begin Date: 12 Sep 2022Module/Topic
History of Australia's environment movement
Chapter
Chapter 9
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 10
Begin Date: 19 Sep 2022Module/Topic
Museums interpreting environmental histories
Chapter
Chapter 10
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 11
Begin Date: 26 Sep 2022Module/Topic
Environmental history as an agent for community involvement
Chapter
Chapter 11
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 12
Begin Date: 03 Oct 2022Module/Topic
Assessing the benefits of environmental history as a policy tool in natural resource management
Chapter
Chapter 12
Events and Submissions/Topic
Review/Exam Week
Begin Date: 10 Oct 2022Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Exam Week
Begin Date: 17 Oct 2022Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
1 Written Assessment
Weighting: 50% (25% each)
Length: 1,600 words each
Due Dates: 10 August for the first short essay, and 16 September for the second short essay
Details
From each weekly lecture topic, there are several essay questions. These are designed for you to probe the general topic area in greater depth. Choose any two of the questions (one question for the
first essay and one question for the second essay). The two questions you choose cannot be two from the same week. Use at least 6–7 scholarly sources for each question and cite appropriately using either the Turabian Referencing System or the Harvard Referencing System.
Check on Moodle for the actual essay questions.
Week 5 Wednesday (10 Aug 2022) 11:00 pm AEST
Week 6 Tuesday (23 Aug 2022)
The essay will be marked based on your competency to:
Historical content:
* presentation of accurate, relevant and balanced historical evidence
* sound and non-judgmental interpretation of the historical problem
Research/referencing skills:
* thorough research based on scholarly sources
* reflection of relevant readings/lecture materials
* acknowledgement of all sources of ideas/evidence
* correct use of the Turabian or Harvard referencing system
Writing skills:
* clear, concise and correct written English
* logical structure/organisation of ideas
* clarity of argument/explanation in response to the question
* use of formal essay style
* meeting the required number of words, most of which should be your own wording
- Have a basic understanding of a range of human-nature interactions on the Australian continent since pre-European times.
- Have an understanding of how to apply historical data to both the resolution of environmental issues (data such as: documents, government reports, interviews, aerial photographs, remote sensing and images/film) AND to nurturing processes such as 'stakeholder empowerment' in environmental protection.
- Communication
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
2 Written Assessment
Weighting: 50%
Length: 3000 words
Due Date: 7 October
Details
Choose an environmental problem/issue in your local or wider community or from the literature (it must be an environmental problem/issue in Australia, but not related to the Great Barrier Reef). It can be a current environmental problem/issue or one that has already been resolved. Analyse its historical evolution in terms of:
1. What is the environmental problem? How did the problem come to light? Who discovered it [scientists, media, residents, etc??]. When and how did it come to light [incident, accident, coincident, etc??].
2. Who are the stakeholders who have a claim in the environmental problem/issue and what are the ideologies, values, attitudes and perceptions that these stakeholders have in relation to the issue? The stakeholders may include local community members/groups, environmental groups, business/industry representatives, experts (scientific, technological, other), politicians and government officials.
3. What led to it becoming a problem for the environment (here you should consider management practices, lack of scientific data, lack of ownership of the resource, government neglect, public apathy, human ignorance, competing priorities, a particular ideological cause and so on)?
4. What is the community response to the issue, what is the degree of community awareness?
Remember there will probably be competing community responses.
5. What might the future of the environmental issue be considering how it has developed so far? How well is it being resolved, or was resolved? What lessons can be learnt?
More details are found in Moodle
Week 12 Friday (7 Oct 2022) 11:00 pm AEST
Exam Week Wednesday (19 Oct 2022)
The essay will be marked based on your competency to:
Historical content:
* presentation of accurate, relevant and balanced historical evidence
* sound and non-judgmental interpretation of the historical problem
Research/referencing skills:
* thorough research based on scholarly sources
* reflection of relevant readings/lecture materials
* acknowledgement of all sources of ideas/evidence
* correct use of the Turabian or Harvard referencing system
Writing skills:
* clear, concise and correct written English
* logical structure/organisation of ideas
* clarity of argument/explanation in response to the question
* use of formal essay style
* meeting the required number of words, most of which should be your own wording
- Have a basic understanding of a range of human-nature interactions on the Australian continent since pre-European times.
- Have an understanding of how to apply historical data to both the resolution of environmental issues (data such as: documents, government reports, interviews, aerial photographs, remote sensing and images/film) AND to nurturing processes such as 'stakeholder empowerment' in environmental protection.
- Have specific knowledge of some aspect of environmental history in a location and topic of choice.
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
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?
