Assessment for this unit consists of a mixture of quizzes, a written assignment, a short test and a final exam. Submission of all assessments and completion of all tests is essential for adequate progress, since all assessment tasks are required to master the content of this unit. Most importantly, it will be essential to keep pace with the quizzes, as marks accrue weekly throughout the semester.

Students must receive at least a PASS (≥ 50%) for the in-session assessment tasks (weighting of 60%) and must also achieve at least a PASS (≥ 50%) in the final exam (weighting of 40%) in order to pass this unit.

All assessments will be graded and marks returned to students within three weeks of the assessment due date. Marks will be available on Gradebook in iLearn. Feedback on the written assignment will be provided through Turnitin when the marks are released.

Weekly ‘lecture’ quizzes:

Quiz questions will be inserted into the lecture slides each week, based on the lecture material. Quizzes will be open on iLearn each week from 9 am Monday to 9 am Wednesday. Once you start the quiz you have 12 minutes to complete it and you are only allowed one attempt. These questions are designed in part to ensure you have covered the lecture material before the practicals so you have the best opportunity to learn from the practical exercises. There are a total of 12 weekly quizzes, starting in Week 2. The quizzes will be automatically marked and the marks and correct answers will be released once the submission window has closed.

Weekly ‘practical’ quizzes:

These quiz questions will be made available on iLearn during the on-campus sessions and will be based on the material covered in the practicals. Questions will be available on iLearn during practical sessions and answers must be submitted before the completion of each practical session. These questions are designed to test your understanding of the practical exercises. There are a total of 10 practical quizzes (each with multiple questions). The quizzes will be automatically marked and the marks and correct answers will be released once all of the practical sessions for that topic (including internals) have finished.

Written assignment:

Students will choose a physiological process from a list provided and write a 1000-word report (including references in Harvard style) on its control points, impact on overall cell function and response to the environment. A rubric which outlines the assessment criteria will be made available on iLearn.

This report is due by 11:59 pm Sunday 7 May 2017 (end of Week 8) and must be submitted through the Turnitin link in the Week 8 section of iLearn (no hardcopy is required). Students are reminded that Turnitin is plagiarism checking software and all assignments must comply with the Academic Honesty Policy of the university, which can read at: http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/academic_honesty/policy.html.

Apart from plagiarising other external sources of material, be aware that your work will be cross-checked against other students’ work. We encourage you to discuss ideas with your fellow students but you must write original work for submission. Assignments can only be submitted to Turnitin once, so make sure your assignment is finalised before you submit.

Mid-semester test:

A mid-semester test will be held in the afternoon of Wednesday 26 April 2017 (first day of the second on-campus session). The test will consist of short-answer questions and will cover all lecture content up to and including Week 6 and practical content presented before the test (i.e. lectures 1-12 and practicals 1-5). Calculators without text retrieval capacity will be allowed into the exam room. This test will be different to the test completed by the internal students.

Final examination:

The final exam will be closed book and three hours duration and held in the official university examination period at the end of the session. The exam will consist of short- and extended-answer questions. The short-answer questions will be drawn from the sample short answer questions made available each week on iLearn. Calculators without text retrieval capacity will be allowed into the exam room. For further information please see the university examination policy at: https://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/assessment/schedule_4.html

Discussion group:

Discussion with the unit convenor of principles arising from the unit. This will require an overarching understanding of the significance of the full range of physiological processes of living things discussed in this unit. The aim is that students should be able to integrate diverse processes, drawing upon content of both lectures and practicals.

Lectures

There are two live lectures each week: Monday 10-11 am in E7B T4 and Tuesday 2-3 pm in W5A T1. These lectures are recorded and made available through the Echo360 link on the iLearn page soon after the lecture is presented. Lectures are available in audio-only or video format where the material projected onto the screen is captured along with the voice of the lecturer.  Since some topics in this unit are not dealt with in the textbook, it is important to listen to/watch all lectures, especially as assessed quizzes are embedded in each lecture. Students who do not listen to/watch all lectures often find it difficult to manage the quiz regime and therefore to pass the unit.

Practical sessions

Practical sessions are held in E8A 120 (the RED lab), this is building E8A room 120 on the ground floor. There are two on-campus sessions, the first at the end of Week 2 (11-12 March) and the second in the mid-semester break (26-28 April). You are required to attend for the full duration of both on-campus sessions. Please be aware that parking is not free on-campus and there are security guards patrolling and issuing fines for vehicles without permits.

You need to bring a lab notebook, pencils and pens with you to the practical sessions for making notes and drawings of what you observe. A calculator would also be an advantage. Your textbook will be referred to during lab classes so having it on hand will help.

Safety

Students are required to bring a lab coat to all practical sessions. Lab coats can be purchased from the campus shop (there are no lab coats available for loan in practical sessions). Closed in shoes are required for practical classes. If you do not have closed in shoes you will not be allowed into the lab and will therefore miss out on that week’s practical material and associated assessment marks.

Technology

A computer with internet access is required to access iLearn which contains the unit materials and assessments. If you do not have a computer at home then computers with internet access are available in the Library for all students to use. We expect you to log on to iLearn several times each week so you can:

• Check for announcements
• Download lecture notes (available as pdf files)
• Complete weekly online quizzes and submit assessments
• Post questions and replies on the discussion board
• Check your grades

Remember that we can check your individual log-ins in iLearn so best that you make this a habit.

There are 16 desktops in the practical labs but probably 32 students. The lab-based quizzes will require internet access. You can easily complete the quizzes using a smartphone or tablet connected to the university Wi-Fi. However, if you do not have a convenient way of doing these quizzes with your own device, then locate yourself at a desktop computer.

Practical notes will be available online but are kept deliberately short in order to make printing off these notes practicable. You may use a tablet in the practical sessions but paper notes are often more convenient in the reality of wet surfaces, lots of equipment and risk on things toppling overboard.

Textbook and readings

The recommended textbooks for this unit are:

• Plant Physiology by Taiz and Zeiger – published by Sinauer;
• Animal Physiology by Hill, Wyse and Anderson – published by Sinauer; and
• Biology of Plants by Evert and Eichhorn – published by Freeman.

These will be available for purchase from the Co-op Bookshop on-campus. Limited copies will be available in the Reserve Section of the library. We recommend textbooks but do not insist on them. However, these are classical texts which are in at least their fourth edition and there will often be good second-hand copies to be found. We are confident that the principles described in these texts are enduring and they will be decades (at least) before they are no longer relevant to the living world.

Lectures and assessments

On-campus sessions

New unit – no previous offering