BOTN13002 - Plants and the Environment

General Information

Unit Synopsis

In this unit, you will study plant ecophysiology, describing in vivo responses of plants to the environment in both an agricultural and environmental context. You will gain an understanding of plant structure and function, including water relations, transport pathways, gas exchange, photosynthesis, respiration, secondary metabolism, nutrition and growth regulation.

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: minimum of 72 credit points

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 2 - 2025

Term 1 - 2026 Profile
Mixed Mode
Rockhampton

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. Online Quiz(zes) 10%
2. Written Assessment 25%
3. Practical Assessment 25%
4. Online Test 40%

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 1 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 33.33% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 18.75% 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: in class feedback
Feedback
Maintain residential school
Recommendation
The face-to-face learning and physical activity of the residential school is critical part of this unit, with the three day school to be maintained. Arrangements have been made to use another lab, better suited to the work.
Action Taken
A shift was made to 8LG lab rather than 9LG - which provided much better learning environment.
Source: through Moodle site
Feedback
With the change in the Moodle GUI there was some confusion on where/how to access the weekly discussion forum.
Recommendation
In future offers I will require a response from all students in week 1 through the discussion forum to ensure everyone is 'on board'.
Action Taken
Cohort awareness of weekly discussion forum successfully raised.
Source: SUTE comments and unsolicited end of term emails
Feedback
Residential school is essential
Recommendation
Agreed - the face-to-face interaction and the equipment use assist in understanding the material of this unit.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: SUTE comments
Feedback
Quiz assessment opening and closing dates should match that in the unit profile.
Recommendation
The quiz on a given weeks material is generally due on the Monday of the second week post class, but this is adjusted in the last weeks of term in order to finish within term. This will be clarified in unit profile.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: SUTE comments
Feedback
Cover all of the topic in the one recording.
Recommendation
This suggestion reflects disparity between students attending class physically and those watching recordings. I have been recording a weekly presentation made face-to-face to a small cohort, with the benefit that all material is fresh every offering. I need to look at how to break material while maintaining flow for the physical attendees. Separate recordings could be made for a series of concepts/topics, for use over multiple years, with the physical class evolved to a discussion.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: SUTE comments
Feedback
Do not require students to use the internet for Assessment 4
Recommendation
Assignment 4 is an open-book exercise that is undertaken in a 3 h period within a 24 h period, on-line. As an open-book, on-line exercise, internet use is assumed. Therefore, questions need to be designed that recognize internet resources, including AIs, are available during the assessment exercise. While recognizing bandwidth limitations, more internet/AI use will be explored.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: SUTE comments
Feedback
Include more pasture and grazing examples.
Recommendation
BOTN13002 services Science, Environmental and Agricultural students, with a balance in content/examples required to maintain relevance to all groups. Agricultural examples have tended to cropping rather than pasture, which can be addressed by inclusion of more pasture case studies.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes

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

  1. Describe and illustrate the principal physiological processes of angiosperms as an integrated system
  2. Apply knowledge of plant physiology in real life situations in agriculture, forestry and vegetation management
  3. Conduct plant physiology experiments, write experimental reports in the correct format and critique existing reports.

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3
1 - Online Quiz(zes) • •
2 - Written Assessment • •
3 - Practical Assessment • •
4 - Online Test •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3
1 - Communication •
2 - Problem Solving •
3 - Critical Thinking • •
4 - Information Literacy •
5 - Team Work •
6 - Information Technology Competence • •
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