Unit Guide

General Information

Unit convenor and teaching staff	Unit convenor and teaching staff Convenor Melanie Bishop melanie.bishop@mq.edu.au Contact via 9850 4075 14 Eastern Rd Rm 205 Mon 9:30 am - 5 pm; Wed 11:00 - 5 pm
Credit points	Credit points 10
Prerequisites	Prerequisites 130cp at 1000 level or above
Corequisites	Corequisites 10cp from (BIOL3000-BIOL3450) or (BIOL301-BIOL375) or BBE305 or BBE306
Co-badged status	Co-badged status
Unit description	Unit description The Biology Capstone seeks to equip students for professional engagement in biology disciplines. The unit will focus on developing student awareness and capability across the following themes: career goals; portfolio and network development; awareness and application of research conduct and integrity; human and animal ethics in research; biosecurity; biology in the public sphere; and communicating biology to experts and the public.

Important Academic Dates

Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates

Learning Outcomes

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

ULO1: Compile a portfolio of key knowledge and skills gained throughout the program of study
ULO2: Identify career goals and develop the skills necessary to achieve them.
ULO3: Provide critical analysis and commentary on the contribution of biology to current affairs
ULO4: Explain the concept of ethics in biological research, and apply this knowledge to the preparation of applications for research activities.
ULO5: Develop a grant proposal that addresses an issue of national relevance
ULO6: Explain complex biological processes in ways that can be understood by the general public

General Assessment Information

Extensions, penalties and special consideration

Unless special arrangements have been made in advance with the Unit Convenor, late submissions of weekly Online Learning activities or Science in the Public Sphere Blogs will receive a mark of zero. Similarly, failure to attend your allocated interview time slot will result in a mark of zero for this activity.

Late submissions of other assessments will attract a penalty of 5% of the total marks allocated to the exercise per day. That is, if an assessment is out of 20, 1 mark out of 20 will be deducted for every day late. You may hand in your work after the due date and escape penalty only if you have an acceptable reason (usually a medical certificate). Discuss your problem with the Unit Convenor as early as possible before the due date.

Information on applying for Special Consideration for disruption to studies can be found here: https://students.mq.edu.au/study/my-study-program/special-consideration

Assignment submission, grading and return

All assignments will be submitted and graded online.

Submissions of weekly Online Learning activities and Biology in the Public Sphere blogs will be via the Q&A forums at the end of each week's ilearn module. Once you have submitted your post, you will be able to view the work of other students. For each of these assessments you will also be required to cut and paste your text into a Word document and submit this to turnitin via the unit’s iLearn site for plagiarism detection. We will streamline plagiarism checks of the weekly Online Learning activities by submitting these to turnitin in two batches: a single document, containing the text of posts from week 3-8 posts will be submitted in week 8; in week 13, a single document with text from the week 9-13 posts will be submitted. For the Biology in the Public Sphere Blogs, a single document containing text from all blogs will be submitted for plagiarism detection in Week 13. Please note - the weekly posts will be used for grading, and late submissions will receive a grade of 0 for that week.

Career readiness documents (i.e. CV and job application), the outreach activity and the grant proposal will be all submitted via turnitin.

Turnitin is a powerful online tool for the detection of plagiarism. It works by comparing the text of a submitted document (i.e., your assignment) with the work of your current classmates, other courses at Macquarie, as well as published material in books, journals and on the web.

To submit your assignment via turnitin:

Visit the Assessments tab in iLearn, look for the turnitin header and select the relevant assessment item
Click on the Submit Paper tab.
Select your Student Name
Enter a Submission Title.
Select Submission Part if there are multiple parts available.
Click Browse and select the file you would like to submit.
Click Add Submission.

Grading

All assessments for this unit will be marked according to the rubrics provided in the Assessments folder of ilearn.

This unit and its assessments are moderated according to departmental and university requirements. For example, where assessments are marked by multiple people, all agree on the marking process and marks are compared to ensure consistency. All summative assessments are moderated, with the major assessment also moderated by an academic external to the unit.

Plagiarism

All written work must be in the student's own words. Assessments submitted via Turnitin will be subjected to plagiarism detection. Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Penalties for plagiarism range from loss of marks to awarding a zero, depending upon the level of plagiarism, and will be reported to the Faculty Disciplinary Committee.

Assessment Tasks

Name	Weighting	Hurdle	Due
Career readiness	20%	No	CV/application: 11:55 PM Fri 21 Aug; Interview: in class TBC
Online activities	10%	No	11:55 pm Mon, weeks 4-13
Biology in the public sphere blog	30%	No	11:55 pm Sun, weeks 4-13
Outreach activity	10%	No	11:55 PM, Friday 9 October
Grant proposal	30%	No	11:55 pm, Friday 6th November

Career readiness

Assessment Type ¹: Portfolio
Indicative Time on Task ²: 5 hours
Due: CV/application: 11:55 PM Fri 21 Aug; Interview: in class TBC
Weighting: 20%

Includes selection of a target job and preparation of a cover letter, statement of how they meet essential/desirable criteria and a CV/academic portfolio, and a mock interview. Students will use job seek websites to identify a position to which their skills, acquired through their biology/human biology major, might apply. They will prepare a cover-letter and statement of how they meet essential/desirable criteria, as well as a CV. The exact format these take will depend any requirements laid out in the job advertisement, and marks will be allocated to correctly following any instructions provided. The student will then attend a job interview during which they answer questions on their suitability for the position.