Overview
The impacts of human populations on the natural environment are well studied but little progress has been made to improve the sustainability of our lifestyle due to the complex interactions among social, economic and environmental imperatives. In Sustainability Issues and Solutions you will investigate the impact of human activities on a range of living and non-living, renewable and non-renewable natural resources. By applying 'Systems Thinking' you will practise developing solutions that are economically, socially and environmentally sustainable. On completion of this unit you will have a broad appreciation of the balances underpinning both temporal and spatial variation in sustainability and human efforts to control these.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
Minimum of 72 credit points
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 3 - 2021
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 Formal feedback.
The assessable forums were given insufficient weight (only 10% in total), because the maximum (albeit not the expected) length of the posts was increased during the unit.
The assessable forum posts should have a greater weight (40%) and replace the final report task.
- Discuss the economic, ethical and ecological issues associated with the sustainable utilisation of the earth's renewable and non-renewable natural resources.
- Explain the importance of systems thinking and an understanding of temporal and spatial scales and feedback loops in determining solutions to sustainable management of resources.
- Discuss the shortcomings in our understanding and acceptance of the processes that lead to sustainability.
- Develop a range of possible strategies that would help to ensure the sustainable utilisation of natural resources.
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment - 20% | ||||
| 2 - Written Assessment - 30% | ||||
| 3 - Written Assessment - 40% | ||||
| 4 - Group Discussion - 10% | ||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 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 - Written Assessment - 20% | ||||||||||
| 2 - Written Assessment - 30% | ||||||||||
| 3 - Written Assessment - 40% | ||||||||||
| 4 - Group Discussion - 10% | ||||||||||
Textbooks
There are no required textbooks.
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.
a.anastasi@cqu.edu.au
a.irving@cqu.edu.au
Module/Topic
Sustainability concepts and systems thinking
Chapter
Study Guide Chapter 1
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Ecological, economic and social measures of sustainability
Chapter
Study Guide Chapter 2
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Biodiversity
Chapter
Study Guide Chapter 3
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Water resources
Chapter
Study Guide Chapter 4
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Study Guide Chapter 5
Events and Submissions/Topic
Part 1 of assessment 2: due Monday, 12:00 midday,
Module/Topic
Trees, carbon and climate change
Chapter
Study Guide Chapter 6
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Marine resources
Chapter
Study Guide Chapter 7
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Study Guide Chapter 8
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Waste management and the circular economy
Chapter
Study Guide Chapter 9
Events and Submissions/Topic
Part 2 of assessment 2: due Monday, 12:00 midday,
Module/Topic
Population and sustainable development
Chapter
Study Guide Chapter 10
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Study Guide Chapter 11
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Cultural change and social innovation
Chapter
Study Guide Chapter 12
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Part 3 of assessment 2: due Monday, 12:00 midday,
1 Group Discussion
You are required to post relevant comments to an opening forum in Moodle to obtain the maximum marks. The forum will be open for the first two weeks of term. Forum posts must be 600 words or less.
Week 3 Monday (22 Nov 2021) 11:59 am AEST
The forum will close after week 2.
Week 4 Monday (29 Nov 2021)
Mark will be available through the Moodle gradebook.
Your posts will be assessed on:
- Relevance to the question
- Evidence of critical thinking
- Clarity of arguments
- Conciseness of post
- Discuss the economic, ethical and ecological issues associated with the sustainable utilisation of the earth's renewable and non-renewable natural resources.
- Explain the importance of systems thinking and an understanding of temporal and spatial scales and feedback loops in determining solutions to sustainable management of resources.
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Team Work
- Information Technology Competence
- Cross Cultural Competence
- Ethical practice
2 Written Assessment
This assessment consists of 3 parts, all in the form of forum posts on allocated topics throughout the term. Each contribution must clearly respond to the question and add new information, and must cite authoritative sources. Word limit for each of the three contributions is 600 words.
Topics will be allocated throughout the term, and fora and instructions opened at least 2 weeks before the due date. Refer to the unit's Moodle page for further instructions.
The contributions are due on Monday, 12:00 midday in weeks 5, 9, 13 (exam week).
Ten working days after submission
Your contributions will be assessed on:
- Relevance to the question
- Evidence of critical thinking
- Clarity of arguments
- Conciseness of post
- Quality of references
- Explain the importance of systems thinking and an understanding of temporal and spatial scales and feedback loops in determining solutions to sustainable management of resources.
- Develop a range of possible strategies that would help to ensure the sustainable utilisation of natural resources.
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
- Information Technology Competence
- Cross Cultural Competence
- Ethical practice
3 Written Assessment
Prepare a slide deck with notes for a presentation that could be delivered to a group of peers. The presentation topic and further instructions will be allocated to you through the Moodle site.
Your slide deck should consist of a PowerPoint presentation of 15 slides (maximum), including the title slide and a slide of references. Add the extra information you would use during the presentation in the notes section below the slides. You should not have more than about seven dot points or 30 words per slide, and the notes section should be in dot point format and be between about 1000 and 1500 words in total for the entire presentation. For this assessment, you are NOT required to actually give the presentation to an audience or add a narration to the slides!
Pitch your material at an informed lay audience, by using clear concise English and avoiding the use of jargon.
Always check the Moodle site for further information!
Week 6 Monday (20 Dec 2021) 11:59 am AEST
10 days after due date
- Clarity of presentation and logical presentation of the issues
- Application of science and sustainability principles
- Comprehensive coverage of relevant issues
- Use of valid information sources and accuracy of reference details
- Appropriateness of language and presentation for audience
- Discuss the economic, ethical and ecological issues associated with the sustainable utilisation of the earth's renewable and non-renewable natural resources.
- Discuss the shortcomings in our understanding and acceptance of the processes that lead to sustainability.
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
- Information Technology Competence
- Cross Cultural Competence
- Ethical practice
4 Written Assessment
You will be required to write a research report on a selected sustainability topic, allocated to you through Moodle during the term. The research report must cover pertinent issues related to the topic and analyse suggested solutions critically, including giving quantitative estimations where appropriate. Detailed guidelines will be posted to the unit's Moodle site. The word limit for the report is 2000, and you must use authoritative references to corroborate your arguments.
Week 11 Friday (4 Feb 2022) 11:59 am AEST
Ten working days after due date.
Assignment will be assessed on:
- Logical presentation of arguments
- Relevance of issues raised
- Clarity of expression
- Evidence of research and critical thinking
- Selection of credible sources and correct referencing
- Appropriate quantifications
- Discuss the shortcomings in our understanding and acceptance of the processes that lead to sustainability.
- Develop a range of possible strategies that would help to ensure the sustainable utilisation of natural resources.
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
- Cross Cultural Competence
- Ethical practice
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?
