Unit Synopsis
Nanotechnology and nanoscience are emerging, revolutionary areas of science that will lead to exciting developments in health, medicine, the environment, information technology and engineering (among other industries). In this unit, you will become familiar with existing uses of nanotechnology along with future opportunities in the nanoscience domain. Medical and environmental applications and the development of 'emerging technologies' will be discussed and the technical, environmental and social impacts of these technological advances explored.
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 |
Pre-requisites: CHEM19085 Environmental Chemistry OR CHEM12077 Food Science and Analysis OR CHEM12079 Structure and Reactivity OR CHEM12080 Organic and Bio-Organic Chemistry 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 |
Compulsory Residential School View Unit Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2026
Term 1 - 2026 Profile
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.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Written Assessment | 40% |
| 2. Practical and Written Assessment | 40% |
| 3. Take Home Exam | 20% |
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%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site .
Term 1 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 100.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 33.33% 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: Reflective practice
The Unit needs more coverage on recent advances in nanotechnology
Include more content on nanomaterials applied towards environmental remediation, vaccines and disease detection, which are current global concerns.
Weekly posts were made on Moodle connecting the unit content to contemporary news articles or recent advances in nanotechnology. Additionally, the unit content already covers the use of nanotechnology in vaccines and disease detection.
Source: Reflective practice
Residential school activities need to be expanded
The residential school activities need to be redesigned to have a wider variety of short, workable practicals.
Due to time constraints, the residential school activities were unable to be redesigned. However, this should be addressed in a future offering.
Source: Reflective practice
The atomic force microscope (AFM) needs an operator
A tech staff member or RHD student be trained to operate the atomic force microscope (AFM) enabling them to assist with these practicals during residential school.
There are ongoing challenges with access to the AFM (with it either being out of service, or an operator being unavailable). Liaison with the technical staff is recommended.
Source: Unit coordinator
Residential school activities should be expanded.
Residential school activities should be re-evaluated before the next offering.
In Progress
Source: Student feedback
Students suggested that the lecture material could be updated.
Lecture material should be updated in the next offering.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Explain and apply key principles of nanoscience, nanotechnology, and biomaterials
- Critically evaluate and synthesise research on nanomaterials and biomaterials
- Analyse the societal, environmental, and biological impacts of nanotechnology and biomaterials
- Design innovative solutions using nanotechnology and biomaterials in applied contexts.
Not applicable
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment | • | • | ||
| 2 - Practical and Written Assessment | • | • | ||
| 3 - Take Home Exam | • | • | • | |
| 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 | • | • | • | |
| 8 - Ethical practice | • | • | ||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |