Requirements to Pass this Unit: This unit is assessed as outlined below. You must achieve a total mark equal to or greater than 50% to pass the unit.

Late Assessment Submission: Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, a 5% penalty (of the total possible mark of the task) will be applied for 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. The submission time for all uploaded assessments is 11:55 pm. If no day is specified it is 11:55 pm on Friday. A 1-hour grace period will be provided to students who experience a technical problem.

Postponement of the Great Debate requires an approved Special Consideration.

Assessments where Late Submissions will be accepted with standard late penalties: all written assignments

Assessments where Late Submissions will NOT be accepted: the Great Debate

Special Consideration

The Special Consideration Policy aims to support students who have been impacted by short-term circumstances or events that are serious, unavoidable and significantly disruptive, and which may affect their performance in assessment. If you experience circumstances or events that affect your ability to complete the assessments in this unit on time, please inform the convenor and submit a Special Consideration request through https://ask.mq.edu.au/

Continuing assessment

Assessment Type ¹: Quiz/Test Indicative Time on Task ²: 12 hours Due: Weekly

Weighting: 5%

Continuing assessment involves providing a brief answer to a weekly question appearing on iLearn each week.

On successful completion you will be able to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of key concepts of biotechnology, its interdisciplinary nature and impact on modern society.
• Relate information published in the scientific literature to practical research questions in biotechnology
• Explain and interpret results from the laboratory experiments carried out during the practicals reflecting published literature and relevant technical and theoretical concepts.
• Critique and communicate a complex biotechnology topic in writing and orally and practice the ability to form opinions on the safety and ethics issues related to gene editing in our society.
• Engage in curiosity-driven learning activities and critically evaluate the work of others.

Primer crafting task

Assessment Type ¹: Design Task Indicative Time on Task ²: 6 hours Due: Week 3

Weighting: 5%

You will learn how to turn a peptide sequence to a DNA sequence and design oligonucleotide primers for various purposes in the laboratory such as “catching” a gene and DNA sequencing. Marks and feedback will be provided via iLearn within 2 weeks from the date of submission. 

On successful completion you will be able to:

• Demonstrate good practical laboratory skills involving the use of contemporary experimental techniques in biotechnology including microbial culture, and production and characterisation of recombinant glycoproteins of therapeutic value.
• Relate information published in the scientific literature to practical research questions in biotechnology
• Explain and interpret results from the laboratory experiments carried out during the practicals reflecting published literature and relevant technical and theoretical concepts.
• Critique and communicate a complex biotechnology topic in writing and orally and practice the ability to form opinions on the safety and ethics issues related to gene editing in our society.
• Engage in curiosity-driven learning activities and critically evaluate the work of others.

The Great Debate

Assessment Type ¹: Debate Indicative Time on Task ²: 5 hours Due: Week 7

Weighting: 15%

The students will be divided into groups who will be given a topic in the area of biotechnology which they either have to defend or oppose.

On successful completion you will be able to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of key concepts of biotechnology, its interdisciplinary nature and impact on modern society.
• Critique and communicate a complex biotechnology topic in writing and orally and practice the ability to form opinions on the safety and ethics issues related to gene editing in our society.

Report 1

Assessment Type ¹: Lab report Indicative Time on Task ²: 15 hours Due: Week 8

Weighting: 23%

Written report on Practical Module 1.

The written report on Practical Module 1 will introduce students to report writing and provide feedback on the skills and style in report writing and extracting relevant information from various paper and electronic sources. Marks and feedback will be provided via iLearn within 4 weeks from the date of submission. 

On successful completion you will be able to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of key concepts of biotechnology, its interdisciplinary nature and impact on modern society.
• Demonstrate good practical laboratory skills involving the use of contemporary experimental techniques in biotechnology including microbial culture, and production and characterisation of recombinant glycoproteins of therapeutic value.
• Relate information published in the scientific literature to practical research questions in biotechnology
• Explain and interpret results from the laboratory experiments carried out during the practicals reflecting published literature and relevant technical and theoretical concepts.
• Critique and communicate a complex biotechnology topic in writing and orally and practice the ability to form opinions on the safety and ethics issues related to gene editing in our society.
• Engage in curiosity-driven learning activities and critically evaluate the work of others.

Report 2

Assessment Type ¹: Lab report Indicative Time on Task ²: 10 hours Due: Week 13

Weighting: 12%

Written report on Practical Module 2.

Students are expected to take into account the feedback from Report 1 to improve their performance in Report 2 and produce an executive summary linking together Practical Modules 1 and 2, as part of the report. Marks and feedback will be provided via iLearn within 2 weeks from the date of submission. 

On successful completion you will be able to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of key concepts of biotechnology, its interdisciplinary nature and impact on modern society.
• Demonstrate good practical laboratory skills involving the use of contemporary experimental techniques in biotechnology including microbial culture, and production and characterisation of recombinant glycoproteins of therapeutic value.
• Relate information published in the scientific literature to practical research questions in biotechnology
• Explain and interpret results from the laboratory experiments carried out during the practicals reflecting published literature and relevant technical and theoretical concepts.

Final Examination

Assessment Type ¹: Examination Indicative Time on Task ²: 14 hours

Due: TBC - Final Examination timetable

Weighting: 40%

The final examination will be 3 hours plus 10 min reading time. The examination will cover all sections of the unit including workshops and practicals and consists of short answers, problem solving tasks and essay questions.

On successful completion you will be able to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of key concepts of biotechnology, its interdisciplinary nature and impact on modern society.
• Demonstrate good practical laboratory skills involving the use of contemporary experimental techniques in biotechnology including microbial culture, and production and characterisation of recombinant glycoproteins of therapeutic value.
• Relate information published in the scientific literature to practical research questions in biotechnology
• Explain and interpret results from the laboratory experiments carried out during the practicals reflecting published literature and relevant technical and theoretical concepts.
• Critique and communicate a complex biotechnology topic in writing and orally and practice the ability to form opinions on the safety and ethics issues related to gene editing in our society.

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

Methods of Communication

We will communicate with you via your university email and through announcements on iLearn. Queries to convenors can either be placed on the iLearn discussion board or sent to the unit convenor via the contact email on iLearn.

iLearn Website

As a student enrolled in this unit, you will engage in a range of online and face-to-face learning activities, including lectures, online modules and practicals. All details can be found on the iLearn site for this unit

Technology Used

Active participation in the learning activities throughout the unit will require students to have access to a tablet, laptop or similar device. Students who do not own their own laptop computer may borrow one from the university library.

COVID Information

For the latest information on the University’s response to COVID-19, please refer to the Coronavirus infection page on the Macquarie website: https://www.mq.edu.au/about/coronavirus- faqs. Remember to check this page regularly in case the information and requirements change during semester. If there are any changes to this unit in relation to COVID, these will be communicated via iLearn

Week 1 Classes

On Monday of Week 1 you are expected to complete an online iLearn learning module "Practical 1: Welcome to the Lab". You will not attend the lab in person on this week but are expected to have completed review of all iLearn materials covering laboratory etiquette, rules, and safety guidelines. Practicals will be held in person from Week 2 onwards.

Lectures will be held in an online format on Tuesday of each week from 6:30-8:30pm. You are expected to attend these lectures live online via the link provided to you on iLearn unless otherwise notified in advance.

We value student feedback to be able to continually improve the way we offer our units. As such we encourage students to provide constructive feedback via student surveys, to the teaching staff directly, or via the FSE Student Experience & Feedback link in the iLearn page.

Student feedback from the previous offering of this unit was very positive overall but indicated there may be too many assessment tasks. As such, no change to the content of the unit is planned, however, the unit will have a consolidated report task in 2024 and one less assessable task overall.

Unit lectures will be held in an online format this year that will allow students more flexibility to watch and interact live or asynchronously.