Unit Synopsis
In this unit you will examine the interaction between people and the environment in the Australian setting from a historical perspective. You will explore the underlying reasons why and how successive generations have used, shaped and impacted the natural environment, noting their goals, values and technologies. You will develop skills in using environmental histories as a means of problem solving for better resource management, environmental protection and policy-making.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 2 |
| 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 18 Units of Credit 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 | No Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2026
Term 2 - 2026 Profile
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. Presentation | 25% |
| 2. Annotated bibliography | 35% |
| 3. Essay | 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%).
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 - 2024 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 75.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 16.67% 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 Informal Feedback
Refine the assessment support regime
Students indicated that while they found the assessment support workshops helpful, there could be further consideration of the frequency of the meetings, how they are scheduled to meet the diverse range of student availabilities, and the inclusion of further practical training in research skills. These issues will be taken into consideration when scheduling and designing assessment workshops in 2025.
In Progress
Source: Student Unit Evaluation
Improve organisation of learning material
Learning materials for the 2025 iteration of this unit will be reviewed and updated in two ways: 1. Diversify the learning resources to include podcasts and video resources to supplement the scholarly texts for each topic. 2. Offer short video recording of unit coordinator's comments on the weekly learning resources to guide students through the material.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Explain the uses and values of environmental history
- Interpret a range of human-nature interactions on the Australian continent from pre-European times to the present
- Locate, analyse and apply historical evidence to understand the evolution and resolution of an environmental issue as well as nurturing processes such as 'stakeholder empowerment' in environmental protection.
N/A
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Presentation | • | • | |
| 2 - Annotated bibliography | • | • | |
| 3 - Essay | • | • | |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | • | • |
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | • | • |
| 4 - Information Literacy | • | • | • |
| 8 - Ethical practice | • | ||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |