Unit Synopsis
Sustainable engineering practices and climate change are critical topics in current socio-economic and political settings. Meeting the world's energy demand through renewable energy sources and exploring carbon-free alternative energy sources are the highly sought-after solutions. In this unit, you will learn how to apply fundamental laws of physics related to energy and electricity to solve engineering problems. You will also learn the concepts of voltage, and current and use Kirchhoff’s laws to analyse simple direct current (DC) circuits, and learn the fundamentals of alternating currents (AC). This unit also investigates current and future sustainable energy sources comprising solar, wind, hydro, and hydrogen, and relevant production processes. This unit also explores the effects of climate change on using renewable energy and the challenges faced in integrating renewable energy into the primary grid. This unit will promote progress toward the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goal 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 1 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 2 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
There are no pre-requisites for the 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). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School | No Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 3 - 2026
Term 3 - 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
To see assessment details from an earlier availability, please search via a previous term.
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 2 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 50.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 11.69% 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
Students are expected to understand and fulfil the unit requirements.
The unit requirements should be emphasised not only in Week 1 but also consistently throughout the term.
The unit requirements were described to the students at various times during the term.
Source: SUTE
Students expected improved Learning Resources.
Learning materials should be linked to practical applications in engineering and energy, providing students with examples of how theoretical concepts are used in practice. The lecture slides and tutorial problems and solutions should be updated to reflect these changes. Where relevant, multimedia resources should be used to enhance engagement.
The learning materials have been enhanced, and students have been briefed on the practical applications of the theoretical concepts used in the unit.
Source: SUTE
Students expected to identify the learning opportunities from assessments.
Assessments should be reviewed to explicitly reinforce key engineering and energy concepts by incorporating real-world problem-solving scenarios. The Online Test and detailed markers comments should be implemented to guide students on areas of improvement and ensure that assessments progressively build on prior knowledge.
The assessments have been reviewed to include real-world problem-solving skills in engineering and energy, building on knowledge gathered from high school physics.
Source: SUTE
Students expected more feedback with their graded assessments.
Elaborated feedback should be provided on completed assessment tasks, guiding them on areas for improvement and fostering a deeper understanding of the subject matter.
In-depth feedback was provided with the graded assessments.
Source: SUTE
Students found it difficult to identify the useful knowledge base and skills gained in completing the unit.
Each week's content should be clearly mapped to specific learning outcomes and provide a structured overview at the beginning of the term. A weekly summary highlighting key skills and knowledge gained should be integrated.
The learning outcomes expected for each lecture were presented to the students at the beginning of each lecture.
Source: SUTE
Students found it difficult to identify the relevance of this unit to the course they are studying.
Students should be consistently informed about the alignment of unit learning outcomes and assessments with the graduate attributes.
A mapping between the unit learning outcomes and graduate attributes was provided to the students in the unit profile. This mapping was briefly described to the students during the Week 1 lecture.
Source: SUTE
The prescribed textbook was published in the USA and contains examples relevant to that country. The examples discussed in the unit should be related to the current cohort in Australia.
Some examples on the lecture slides and in the tutorial problems should be replaced with content relevant to Australia.
In Progress
Source: SUTE
The unit material delivered in the first five weeks was not from the prescribed textbook, but from chapters in a book on the e-reading list. These different chapters have much more content than the content covered in the lectures. Some of the solutions given in this textbook are incorrect.
Identify clearly the content covered in each lecture and map it to the different textbook sections, which are available as an e-book. Solutions should be presented to a selected number of problems from the e-reading book.
In Progress
Source: SUTE
If possible, change the textbook from copies of different chapters to a centralised textbook (for the first five weeks).
Ideally, a single textbook that covers most of the unit content should be recommended as the prescribed textbook. Until such a textbook is found, the students should be directed to the exact content used from the e-reading book.
In Progress
Source: SUTE
Some tutorial problems/quizzes could not be solved/answered if only the lecture slides or the prescribed textbook were read.
Students should be advised to do some background reading on the given problem/quiz and try to find the solutions. The solutions may not be directly available through the lecture slides or the prescribed textbook.
In Progress
Source: SUTE
Describe the assessments in more detail during the class time.
The Online Test and the Written Assessment should be discussed in depth during the class time.
In Progress
Source: SUTE
Due to technical difficulties at the beginning of the classes, some content was rushed through.
Try to minimise recurring technical issues.
In Progress
Source: SUTE
Useful feedback on assessment items was low.
Sufficiently in-depth feedback should be provided to each graded assessment by each of the markers in the unit.
In Progress
Source: SUTE
Students' expected a higher amount of learning from assessments.
Student's should be sufficiently informed about the unit learning outcomes from each assessment.
In Progress
To see Learning Outcomes from an earlier availability, please search via a previous term.