Unit Synopsis
Successful completion of this unit will provide students with an understanding of the diversity of life at the level of cells and whole organisms, together with an appreciation of a range of fundamental themes in contemporary biology, including biodiversity, ecology, heredity and evolution. In the practical component, students will gain hands-on experience of relevant laboratory and practical procedures.
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 |
Compulsory Residential School View Unit Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2026
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. Online Quiz(zes) | 10% |
| 2. Practical Assessment | 20% |
| 3. Written Assessment | 20% |
| 4. Examination | 50% |
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 - 2018 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 85.71% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 38.18% 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 course evaluation and student communication
Students found seeing and experiencing living organisms in their natural habitat during their field trip was beneficial in enhancing their understanding of the course material.
Recommend to continue to include a field trip as part of the practical learning component
Field trip was continued.
Source: Moodle course evaluation
Students found the time limit on the theory quizzes too short.
The time limit will be increased to allow students more time with the quiz
Time limit on theory quizzes was increased.
Source: Moodle course evaluation and student communication
Students enjoyed the practical laboratory sessions which enhanced their theoretical knowledge.
Practical laboratory session to follow the same format being in line with the lecture material
Practical laboratory sessions were continued in same format.
Source: Moodle course evaluation and student communication
Students found the unit very information heavy with 3 hours of lecture material and a lot of reading.
Revisit unit structure and work load
As this was to be the last offereing of this unit, there was little change to unit structure and workload, however more attempt was made to provide more tutorial questions with answers provided after the tutorial so students can test their knowledge and check their answers.
Source: Moodle feedback
Students found the practical work and the field trip really enhanced their learning
Practical work and field trip will be retained in the replacement unit
In Progress
Source: Moodle feedback
Some students would like to see the practical material in the relevant week
A note will be made about the practical session in the relevant week, but the lab manual will continue to be all in one section on moodle. This is because in previous years where the practical manual was put in the relevant week, the distance students were confused.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Describe the organization of living organisms at the cellular and whole organism level
- Explain the fundamentals of selected core themes, including cell theory, emergent properties, heredity, evolution and biodiversity and demonstrate their application across the biological and environmental sciences
- Describe the concepts underlying current understanding of the diversity and systematics of living organisms, using appropriate sources and terminology
- Carry out a range of laboratory and practical procedures relating to the diversity of life
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Online Quiz(zes) | • | • | • | |
| 2 - Practical Assessment | • | • | • | |
| 3 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | |
| 4 - Examination | • | • | • | |
| 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 | |