MARN13007 - Coastal Marine Resources

General Information

Unit Synopsis

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

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: 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).

Class Timetable View Unit Timetable
Residential School Compulsory Residential School
View Unit Residential School

Unit Availabilities from Term 3 - 2024

There are no availabilities for this unit on or after Term 3 - 2024

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. Written Assessment 15%
2. Written Assessment 15%
3. Written Assessment 15%
4. Report 55%

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 - 2020 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 100.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 11.76% 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: Moodle evaluation
Feedback
Students expressed a desire for a clearer explanation of the requirements for assessment pieces.
Recommendation
The description and requirements of all assessment pieces will be reviewed and updated for future offerings to improve clarity of expectations and grading outcomes.
Action Taken
Assessment descriptions were reviewed and updated for 2020, including a clearer description of the allocation of marks for each assessment item.
Source: Moodle evaluation
Feedback
A desire for greater time in between assessment items was suggested by one student.
Recommendation
As per each offering of this unit, the scheduling of assessment deadlines will be reviewed and coordinated to best fit in with the associated lecture content and the unit's residential school in order to maximise the time between assessment submission deadlines.
Action Taken
Adequate time among assessment items was provided, with no complaints or comments about this aspect of the unit in 2020.
Source: Moodle evaluation and in-person
Feedback
Many students again showed their enthusiasm for the residential school, highlighting how much they learned and how applicable they felt it was to the 'real world'.
Recommendation
The residential school, and all assessments in this unit, are designed to be as representative of 'real world' tasks as possible, so this feedback is very pleasing. The currents structure of the residential school will be maintained for future offerings.
Action Taken
Unfortunately, the residential school had to be cancelled due to the travel and gathering restrictions required to manage COVID.
Source: Moodle feedback
Feedback
One student said that they found the final assessment task quite difficult due to the lack of previous examples provided.
Recommendation
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.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Moodle, email, and in-person feedback
Feedback
Several students expressed their disappointment at the cancellation of the residential school
Recommendation
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.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Moodle feedback
Feedback
One student expressed their gratitude for having assessments that were representative of 'real world' job tasks in an environmental science field.
Recommendation
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.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes

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

  1. Identify the main components of coastal environments and explain their biological and resource-specific significance.
  2. Compare and contrast the biological interactions between selected key organisms within a biological community.
  3. Sample and quantify representative components of coastal environments to interpret the dynamics of the system.
  4. Assess disturbances by natural and anthropogenic pressures.
  5. Evaluate current coastal management programs and practices.
  6. 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 • • • •
2 - Written Assessment • •
3 - Written Assessment • •
4 - Report • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
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 • • •
8 - Ethical practice • • •
9 - Social Innovation •
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