Unit Synopsis
This unit will enable students to develop their knowledge and understanding of biomolecules and cell function, including the structure and biological role of amino acids, proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates and lipids. They will develop a basic understanding of how these biomolecules are synthesised, catabolised and interconverted through key biochemical pathways to meet the needs of the cell and organism, and will provide the necessary knowledge to begin to study disease and drug treatment at the cellular level. Students will also develop a theoretical understanding of methods used in biochemical analysis and develop literature searching skills in the recognition and use of primary sources of scientific information.
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 |
Prerequisites: CHEM11041 Chemistry for the Life Sciences or CHEM11042 Fundamentals of Chemistry or CHEM11043 Atoms, Molecules and MatterImportant 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 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 Test | 40% |
| 2. Online Test | 60% |
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 60.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 12.32% 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: Student feedback
Some lectures too long and concerns about the amount of content each week.
Several weeks' content has already been broken into smaller lectures. Re-organise the remaining lectures to be shorter during unit refresh. Consideration given to streamlining some of the content.
This has been addressed through progressive refinement and remains an ongoing process.
Source: Student feedback, Self reflection
"What have we learned" slides very helpful, but missing from some lectures.
Ensure that these are included for every lecture.
With the rewriting of the materials for these weeks, these are now included for every week.
Source: Student feedback
Some content irrelevant to future career
Long-term: Consider creating a unit tailored to paramedicine, chiropractic and other courses not requiring such in-depth biochemistry knowledge. Short-term: Provide further context for students to understand importance of context to future careers.
Implementation of case context has been expanded, with more planned for 2026.
Source: Student feedback
Weekly textbook chapters should be provided within Moodle content.
Supplementary readings will be added to each learning week of Moodle.
In Progress
Source: Course Committee
TEQSA and AIMS accreditation guidelines suggest high-stakes assessments should not be conducted online.
Move to invigilated final exam from Term 2, 2026
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Demonstrate knowledge of the structure, function and biological roles of the major types of macromolecules and their building blocks
- Explain the various methods used to separate and characterise macromolecules
- Describe the relationship between structure and function of the components of biological membranes
- Outline the basic processes involved in metabolism of carbohydares, fats and proteins and their catabolism to synthesise ATP through cellular respiration.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Online Test | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Online Test | • | • | • | • |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | • | • | |
| 4 - Information Literacy | • | |||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |
| 1 - Online Test | • | • | • | ||||||||
| 2 - Online Test | • | • | • | ||||||||