In Progress
Please note that this Unit Profile is still in progress. The content below is subject to change.Overview
Australia is renowned for its unique and diverse vertebrate animals. This unit will provide you with an introduction to Australian vertebrate diversity and to the necessary tools to understand the evolutionary, morphological, behavioural and ecological diversity of Australian vertebrate fauna against the backdrop of global vertebrate diversity and evolution. You will learn to use a wide variety of ‘tools’ (taxonomy, phylogeny, fossils, ecophysiology, comparative anatomy, behavioural ecology) as methods for understanding the past, current, and future vertebrate fauna of Australia. You will also learn and practice the applied skill-sets and techniques required for fauna survey and wildlife research in Australia, proficiency in identification of Australian vertebrates and technical report writing for wildlife monitoring and surveying.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
Prerequisites: (BIOL11099 Living Systems OR BIOL11102 Life Sciences Laboratory)
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 - 2025
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.
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 Self-reflection.
The residential school timetabling was disorganized, this resulted in poor on-site accommodation and teaching spaces.
Have fixed timetabling dates for residential schools that are conducted off-site in conjunction with third party providers.
Feedback from Student Unit Evaluation 2024.
Learning how to use Anabat acoustic software to analyze and identify bat calls was enjoyable and very worthwhile.
Retain training sessions in acoustic software analysis and introduce a pre-residential school familiarization session.
Feedback from Student Unit Evaluation 2024.
The unit is extremely enjoyable, the residential school linked to the theory beautifully.
The emphasis placed on linking theory to practical remains a important theme of the unit.
- Describe the evolution, diversity and distribution of major vertebrate fauna in Australia
- Explain the significance of behavioural, reproductive, physiological, and nutritional adaptations in Australian vertebrates
- Apply knowledge about the biology of a species to their applied conservation and management to explain why invasive species pose a threat to Australian vertebrate fauna
- Practice industry and ethical standards and techniques in monitoring, surveying Australian vertebrate fauna
- Communicate knowledge and study findings in verbal and written scientific reports.
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Online Quiz(zes) - 50% | |||||
| 2 - Laboratory/Practical - 0% | |||||
| 3 - Written Assessment - 50% | |||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| 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 | |||||
| 9 - Social Innovation | |||||
| 10 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | |||||