Students

ENVS1018 – Environmental Management for a Changing World

2022 – Session 2, In person-scheduled-weekday, North Ryde

General Information

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Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit convenor and teaching staff Convenor, Senior Lecturer
Emilie Ens
emilie.ens@mq.edu.au
Contact via Email
Associate Professor
Katherine Dafforn
katherine.dafforn@mq.edu.au
Contact via Email
Lecturer
Milena Bojovic
milena.bojovic@mq.edu.au
Contact via Email
Credit points Credit points
10
Prerequisites Prerequisites
Corequisites Corequisites
Co-badged status Co-badged status
Unit description Unit description

This unit explores human interactions with the environment through the lens of sustainability and connectivity; concepts that are central to environmental management in our ever-changing world. It will help students to understand their environment from social and scientific viewpoints and will demonstrate how an interdisciplinary approach to environmental management is integral to human and ecosystem health. Current, real-world examples from terrestrial and marine ecosystems, social systems, atmospheric and climate systems, and their dynamic interplay encourage critical thinking about environmental management issues in Australia and globally. This unit is designed for students who care about the environment and the world's future and will lay firm foundations for a range of environmental and geographical studies.

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: Define the core concepts of environmental management, including society, environment, sustainability and connectivity.
  • ULO2: Describe examples of the ways that population, environment and resources interact to affect human societies and ecosystems, from local to global scales.
  • ULO3: Utilise maps, graphs and other forms of environmental and social data to analyse the key relationships in environmental and human systems.
  • ULO4: Critically review information relating to environmental management issues and communicate the results to a target audience.
  • ULO5: Demonstrate foundational learning skills including active engagement in the learning process.

General Assessment Information

Assessment criteria

Assessment at Macquarie is standards-based, as outlined in the Assessment Policy. This means that your work in ENVS1018 will be assessed against clear criteria, and these criteria will be made available to you via iLearn before the assessment tasks are due.

Submission of Assessment

Tasks All assessment tasks in ENVS1018 must be submitted online through iLearn and Turnitin. Links for the submission of each assessment task will be available on iLearn. Your assignments will be marked and your grades will be returned to you in the online Gradebook, along with feedback noted on the assignment itself. Please do not submit email or hard copies of your assignments.

Penalties for late submission of assessment tasks

From 1 July 2022, Students enrolled in Session based units with written assessments will have the following university standard late penalty applied. Please see https://students.mq.edu.au/study/assessment-exams/assessments for more information. 

Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, a 5% penalty (of the total possible mark) will be applied each day a written assessment is not submitted, up until the 7th day (including weekends). After the 7th day, a grade of '0' will be awarded even if the assessment is submitted. Submission time for all written assessments is set at 11:55 pm. A 1-hour grace period is provided to students who experience a technical concern. 

Extensions for Assessments

To obtain an extension for an assessment task, you need to follow the formal process as outlined in the Special Consideration policy. You can submit your case for special consideration via ask.mq.edu.au and you must provide appropriate supporting documentation (e.g. medical certificate).

Return of Marked Assessments

Due to the large number of students in ENVS1018, we aim to return your assignments with feedback within three weeks of the date that you submit your assignment, and before your next assignment is due. We will advise you through iLearn when your marked assignments are available for viewing.

Assessment Tasks

Name Weighting Hurdle Due
Weekly tutorials 0% Yes Each week - as per Class Schedule
Online quiz 15% No Week 4, 8 and 12
Data analysis 30% No 11.55pm, Friday September 2
Podcast 25% No 11.55pm, Friday October 7
Poster 30% No 11.55pm, Friday November 4

Weekly tutorials

Assessment Type 1: Participatory task
Indicative Time on Task 2: 20 hours
Due: Each week - as per Class Schedule
Weighting: 0%
This is a hurdle assessment task (see assessment policy for more information on hurdle assessment tasks)

 

Includes completion of the required readings, related summary and worksheet for each weekly tutorial .

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Demonstrate foundational learning skills including active engagement in the learning process.

Online quiz

Assessment Type 1: Quiz/Test
Indicative Time on Task 2: 8 hours
Due: Week 4, 8 and 12
Weighting: 15%

 

Online quizzes covering key concepts

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Define the core concepts of environmental management, including society, environment, sustainability and connectivity.
  • Critically review information relating to environmental management issues and communicate the results to a target audience.
  • Demonstrate foundational learning skills including active engagement in the learning process.

Data analysis

Assessment Type 1: Quantitative analysis task
Indicative Time on Task 2: 20 hours
Due: 11.55pm, Friday September 2
Weighting: 30%

 

Analysis and interpretation of environmental data

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Define the core concepts of environmental management, including society, environment, sustainability and connectivity.
  • Describe examples of the ways that population, environment and resources interact to affect human societies and ecosystems, from local to global scales.
  • Utilise maps, graphs and other forms of environmental and social data to analyse the key relationships in environmental and human systems.
  • Critically review information relating to environmental management issues and communicate the results to a target audience.

Podcast

Assessment Type 1: Media presentation
Indicative Time on Task 2: 15 hours
Due: 11.55pm, Friday October 7
Weighting: 25%

 

Podcast focusing on current environmental issues

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Define the core concepts of environmental management, including society, environment, sustainability and connectivity.
  • Describe examples of the ways that population, environment and resources interact to affect human societies and ecosystems, from local to global scales.
  • Utilise maps, graphs and other forms of environmental and social data to analyse the key relationships in environmental and human systems.
  • Critically review information relating to environmental management issues and communicate the results to a target audience.

Poster

Assessment Type 1: Poster
Indicative Time on Task 2: 20 hours
Due: 11.55pm, Friday November 4
Weighting: 30%

 

Poster and interpretation on the topic of: Solutions for contemporary environmental crises

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Define the core concepts of environmental management, including society, environment, sustainability and connectivity.
  • Describe examples of the ways that population, environment and resources interact to affect human societies and ecosystems, from local to global scales.
  • Utilise maps, graphs and other forms of environmental and social data to analyse the key relationships in environmental and human systems.
  • Critically review information relating to environmental management issues and communicate the results to a target audience.

1 If you need help with your assignment, please contact:

  • the academic teaching staff in your unit for guidance in understanding or completing this type of assessment
  • the Writing Centre for academic skills support.

2 Indicative time-on-task is an estimate of the time required for completion of the assessment task and is subject to individual variation

Delivery and Resources

ENVS1018 relies on a structured teaching program to facilitate your learning and critical thinking. The unit is taught via interactive lectures, tutorials, readings, and assessment tasks. 

Students must attend one two-hour lecture and one one-hour tutorial class per week (note: a tutorial is held in week 1, there no tutorials in Week 13). 

Weekday attendance students are expected to attend the lectures and tutorial. Tutorial attendance is part of the hurdle assessment task. 

The timetable for ENVS1018 can be found at: https://timetables.mq.edu.au/2022/

A detailed class schedule with lecture and tutorial topics is available on iLearn. Students must make use of iLearn to access teaching and learning materials, to submit assessment tasks, to stay in touch with the unit, to contact lecturers and tutors, and to discuss issues and concepts with classmates. We also recommend that you follow current developments in the multidisciplinary field of environmental management by staying abreast of the news.

Workload ENVS1018 earns 10 credit points towards your degree. For a 10 credit point unit such as ENVS1018, you are expected to dedicate 150 hours over the semester. This requires planning on your part to do all the work required in lectures, tutorials and assignments.

iLearn ENVS1018 iLearn login page: https://ilearn.mq.edu.au/login/ The ENVS1018 iLearn page uses Macquarie University’s standard interface and has links, discussion threads, blogs, access to lectures (as audio files through Echo360, and as downloadable PDF presentations) and tutorial material. Important announcements will be made through iLearn, so please check the ENVS1018 page regularly.

Echo360 Information about how to access lecture recordings through the Echo360 EchoCenter page in iLearn can be found at: https://students.mq.edu.au/support/study/tools-and-resources/ilearn/ilearn-quick-guides-for-students/lecture-recordings

Turnitin Macquarie University promotes student awareness of information management and information ethics. As well as training and the provision of information, the University promotes academic honesty through use of the online program Turnitin. 

Information about how to submit assignments to Turnitin in iLearn can be found at: https://students.mq.edu.au/support/technology/systems/ilearn/assignments-grades. 

As well as being a key tool for assignment submission, marking and feedback, Turnitin compares your work with the work of your classmates, with previous students from Macquarie and other universities, with material available on the Internet, and with freely available and subscription based electronic journals. The results are sent only to your lecturers, who will analyse them in reference to the University's Academic Integrity Policy.

You will be able to access the results of the Turnitin academic honesty scan for your own assignments, known as your ‘originality report’. In ENVS1018, we will allow you to overwrite the initial submission file with a second submission if you choose to do so, but only up until the final due date and time for the assignment. We consider this opportunity to fine-tune your academic honesty a considerable resource, and we hope that you will use this review process constructively to ensure you are referencing other material correctly and effectively.

Recommended Texts and Readings There is no prescribed textbook for ENVS1018. However, these books and reports will provide helpful guidance and we recommended that students look up and make use of these texts in the library or online:

  • Hay, I. 2012 Communicating in geography and the environmental sciences (Fourth ed.). Melbourne, Vic: Oxford University Press (also available as an e-book).
  • Jackson, W.J., Argent, R.M., Bax, N.J., Bui, E., Clark, G.F., Coleman, S., Cresswell, I.D., Emmerson, K.M., Evans, K., Hibberd, M. F. Johnston, E.L. Keywood, M.S., Klekociuk, A., Mackay, R., Metclafe, D., Murphy, H., Rankin, A., Smith, D.C., and Wiencke, B 2016. Australia State of the Environment 2016. Australian Government Department of the Environment and Energy, Canberra. Available online at https://soe.environment.gov.au/
  • Rose, D.B. 1996 Nourishing terrains: Australian Aboriginal views of landscape and wilderness. Australian Heritage Commission, Canberra.
  • Gibson, K., Rose, D.B. and Fincher, R., 2015. Manifesto for Living in the Anthropocene. Punctum books, Brooklyn, NY.

There are a range of readings relevant to the tutorial and lecture program. You will be guided through these via the iLearn site. To find these items go to the Macquarie University Leganto site - link available on iLearn

Unit Schedule

See up to date Unit Schedule in iLearn

Policies and Procedures

Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central (https://policies.mq.edu.au). Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:

Students seeking more policy resources can visit Student Policies (https://students.mq.edu.au/support/study/policies). It is your one-stop-shop for the key policies you need to know about throughout your undergraduate student journey.

To find other policies relating to Teaching and Learning, visit Policy Central (https://policies.mq.edu.au) and use the search tool.

Student Code of Conduct

Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/admin/other-resources/student-conduct

Results

Results published on platform other than eStudent, (eg. iLearn, Coursera etc.) or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit ask.mq.edu.au or if you are a Global MBA student contact globalmba.support@mq.edu.au

Academic Integrity

At Macquarie, we believe academic integrity – honesty, respect, trust, responsibility, fairness and courage – is at the core of learning, teaching and research. We recognise that meeting the expectations required to complete your assessments can be challenging. So, we offer you a range of resources and services to help you reach your potential, including free online writing and maths support, academic skills development and wellbeing consultations.

Student Support

Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/

The Writing Centre

The Writing Centre provides resources to develop your English language proficiency, academic writing, and communication skills.

The Library provides online and face to face support to help you find and use relevant information resources. 

Student Services and Support

Macquarie University offers a range of Student Support Services including:

Student Enquiries

Got a question? Ask us via AskMQ, or contact Service Connect.

IT Help

For help with University computer systems and technology, visit http://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/offices_and_units/information_technology/help/. 

When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use of IT Resources Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.

Unit information based on version 2022.02 of the Handbook