CHEM13081 - Biomaterials: Environmental and Medical Applications

General Information

Unit Synopsis

This unit is an introduction to the use and usefulness of biomaterials. You will be introduced to the materials science of metals, ceramics, polymers and composites, and the engineering principles behind biomaterial design. You will also discuss the medical and environmental applications of biomaterials, such as biomedical engineering, bioactive polymers and antifouling biofilms.

Details

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 3
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 2
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites

Prerequisite:

CHEM11041 Chemistry for the Life Sciences or CHEM11043 Atoms, Molecules and Matter or CHEM11044 Chemical Reactions

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).

Class Timetable View Unit Timetable
Residential School No Residential School

Unit Availabilities from Term 2 - 2023

Term 2 - 2023 Profile
Online
Term 2 - 2024 Profile
Mixed Mode

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).

Assessment Overview

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.

Assessment Tasks

Assessment Task Weighting
1. Report 20%
2. Written Assessment 40%
3. Take Home Exam 40%

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

Past Exams

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Previous Feedback

Term 2 - 2023 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 50.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 57.14% response rate.

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.

Source: SUTE Units Comments
Feedback
For Assessment Task 1, make the Experimental Proposal due date before the equipment list is due so that groups are able to receive feedback and adjust their experiments and equipment lists as necessary
Recommendation
The equipment list task's due date will be modified for submission after the proposal task for Assessment 1.
Action Taken
As Assessment Task 1 pertained to the now cancelled Residential School, this feedback item is no longer applicable.
Source: SUTE
Feedback
Usefulness of the knowledge and skills is not clear.
Recommendation
To demonstrate the usefulness of the knowledge and skills more clearly, and amidst an impending combination of the Unit with another, we will: 1. Provide relevant, contextualised examples in the content to demonstrate the usefulness of the content and the subject. 2. Review whether the current assessment structure can be improved to enable the students to obtain useful knowledge and skills.
Action Taken
Nil.
Unit learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  1. Describe the various types of biomaterials and the principles of biomaterial design and development
  2. Discuss strategies to solve significant problems in health and the environment using the principles of biomaterial science
  3. Evaluate the use of biomaterials and devices constructed with biomaterials
  4. Assess the compatibility of biomaterials in health and environmental disciplines and apply the appropriate compatibility requirements to real world applications
  5. Discuss the responses of living tissues to implanted biomaterials.

Potential RACI accreditation of CU18 (Bachelor of Science) - currently under consideration. 

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5
1 - Report •
2 - Written Assessment • •
3 - Take Home Exam • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5
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 •
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10