In Progress
Please note that this Unit Profile is still in progress. The content below is subject to change.Overview
Coastal zones around the world are productive and dynamic environments, hosting a large variety of habitats and species that humans use for economic, societal, and recreational purposes. Human use of coastal resources is not without impacts, however, some of which can exacerbate natural events to harm environments and their continued sustainable use. In this unit you will learn about the relationships humans have with estuaries, coastal shorelines, and off-shore environments and habitats, focusing on the range of resource use, associated impacts, and their effective sustainable management. You will be required to synthesise and analyse information and data from multiple points of view (e.g. environmental, societal, economic, etc.), justifying conclusions that demonstrate 'best-practice' methodology for sustainable management across stakeholders. You will practice various forms of written communication, such as scientific tables, media releases, and posters, as part of your assessment. Your practical work will be assessed as part of an end-of-term summary report based on the unit's residential school activities and discussions.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
Prerequisite: BOTN12010 OR ZOOL12009
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).
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 Moodle feedback
One student said that they found the final assessment task quite difficult due to the lack of previous examples provided.
Examples of similar types of reports (environmental feasibility studies) were provided, as well as two-pages of guided links to web-resources for the students to gain information to complete their report. These will be updated and expanded upon for future offerings in light of this feedback.
Feedback from Moodle, email, and in-person feedback
Several students expressed their disappointment at the cancellation of the residential school
COVID restrictions meant that the residential school had to be cancelled in 2020. Should such a situation present itself again in the future, the substitute assessment with associated resources pack will be used again. When field trips are again feasible, it is recommended that new content developed in the substitute resources pack for 2020 be added to the core unit material where appropriate.
Feedback from Moodle feedback
One student expressed their gratitude for having assessments that were representative of 'real world' job tasks in an environmental science field.
This is a feedback point that is often made and it is recommended that the current assessment structure be retained in light of this continued positive feedback.
- Identify the main components of coastal environments and explain their biological and resource-specific significance.
- Compare and contrast the biological interactions between selected key organisms within a biological community.
- Sample and quantify representative components of coastal environments to interpret the dynamics of the system.
- Assess disturbances by natural and anthropogenic pressures.
- Evaluate current coastal management programs and practices.
- Practice laboratory and field sampling skills to acquire useful data in a safe and efficient manner.
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment - 15% | ||||||
| 2 - Written Assessment - 15% | ||||||
| 3 - Written Assessment - 15% | ||||||
| 4 - Report - 55% | ||||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 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 - 15% | ||||||||||
| 2 - Written Assessment - 15% | ||||||||||
| 3 - Written Assessment - 15% | ||||||||||
| 4 - Report - 55% | ||||||||||