Requirements to pass the unit

Assessment for this unit consists of a portfolio based on practicals, a major written report, and a final exam based on material covered in the lectures, practical and fieldwork sessions. Submission of all assessments and completion of all exams is essential for adequate progress, since all assessment tasks are required to master the content of this unit. It will be essential to keep up with the lectures, as well as the practicals and their associated reports. 

Students are expected to regularly participate in the weekly practical classes which will be on-campus, and in one of the on-campus session: either on September 13th, or September 20th (please note these sessions will be held on the weekend).

All assessments will be graded and we will make marks available 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.

To pass this unit you should attempt all assessments and must achieve a total aggregate mark equal to or greater than 50%.

Portfolio based on practical classes (25%)

We will run weekly practicals throughout the semester. In-person participation for these classes is expected. The portfolio consists of five short reports to hand in via Turnitin which will open in iLearn. Each short report will be worth 5% of your grade. You will receive formative feedback on your respective short report (in Weeks 4, 5, 6, 11, respectively) with the final Portfolio being due in Week 12. These reports are designed to test your knowledge of topics covered in these classes, which will generally coincide with topics covered in lectures. More information on these assessments will be provided as the semester progresses.

This unit does not have a Mid-semester Exam.

Plant function report (35%)

Students will submit a substantial written report related to field/lab work carried out during the on-campus sessions through Turnitin on iLearn. The report will be due in Week 10, and must be written in the style of a scientific journal article and will require that students conduct a small literature review, analyse data collected during the on-campus sessions, and use this information to test hypotheses regarding plant form and function. Please use the Checklist for written assessments to check your assignment before electronic submission.

More information on this assessment will be provided as the semester progresses.

Final examination (40%)

The final exam will be held in the official university examination period at the end of the session. The exam will consist of short-, medium- and extended-answer questions.

Checklist for written assessments

For all written assessments: please use the following list to check your assignments before electronic submission.

• Text is the required length
• Text has been proof-read and spell-checked
• References are reputable sources, and are cited at appropriate points within the text
• Formatting of references follows the style of the Austral Ecology journal
• Assignment is your own work – no passages have been copied verbatim from reference sources or from other students. (See note on plagiarism and use of GenAI below and the relevant University Policy)

Plagiarism Students are required to write reports via the plagiarism detection software Turnitin. This can be accessed on the unit’s iLearn website. Your assessment task will be automatically compared to work of your classmates, previous students from Macquarie and other universities, and with material available on the Internet. The results of the analysis will be sent to the unit Convenor. Any evidence of plagiarism will be dealt with following University policy. Please also check the Macquarie advice on using generative AI. The penalties imposed by the University for plagiarism are serious and may include loss of marks, referral to a Faculty Disciplinary Committee, or even expulsion from the University.

Moderation of assessments 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.

Late assessment submission penalty

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.

For any late submission of time-sensitive tasks, such as scheduled tests/exams, performance assessments/presentations, and/or scheduled practical assessments/labs, students need to submit an application for Special Consideration.

In this unit, late submissions will be accepted as follows:

• Assessment Portfolio – YES, Standard Late Penalty applies
• Assessment Plant Function Report – YES, Standard Late Penalty applies 
• Assessment Final Exam – NO, unless Special Consideration is Granted

Special considerations 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.

On-campus attendance is expected for all offerings of this course.

Week 1 classes

Lectures will be delivered from Week 1. The first lecture will be delivered on 30 July 2025, and the first practical session will be held on 5 August 2025.

Methods of communications

We will communicate with you via your university email and through announcements on iLearn. Queries to convenors can be sent to the unit convenor via the contact email on iLearn. General queries can be placed on the iLearn discussion board, which will be monitored by the unit convenor.

Requirements for practical classes

The work carried out during practical classes is an important and integral part of the course. You must read and either download the practical notes on a laptop or tablet or print them to bring to each class. Laptops are also available for short-term use during the practical class. 

Laboratory requirements

• Notebook and pencils/pens for notes & diagrams
• Laptop, if you have one, with Excel and Word (or open source equivalents)
• USB data stick to transfer data (recently checked with anti-virus software)
• Enclosed shoes (you cannot be present in the lab or field without these) 
• No food or drink in University laboratories

Field requirements

• Pencils/pens for notes
• Appropriate clothing (walking shoes or boots, rain jacket, sun protection, trousers and long-sleeved shirt)
• Water bottle and lunch/snacks
• Small backpack to carry your equipment 
• First aid kits will be supplied

NOTE 1: During the on-campus sessions, there will be a 15-minute walk into the Macquarie (MQ) Ecology Reserve and working in uneven terrain. Any students with medical issues or requiring assistance should indicate this on their fieldwork participation form. All students must submit this form; otherwise, they cannot participate in the fieldwork. Please submit this form, via iLearn, by the due date advertised closer to the time.

NOTE 2: Ticks and leeches can occasionally be present at the MQ Ecology Reserve, especially near the creek. Neither insect carries disease, but they are certainly a nuisance. To minimize chances of problems you need to wear suitable clothing (as described above). We suggest tucking your pants into your socks, shirts into pants, etc, and liberally applying insect repellent to your shoes, clothes and exposed skin.

Recommended reading

There is no set textbook for this subject. Recommended books (all available from the library as eBooks or hardcopies) that, between them, cover many of the topics dealt with in lectures include:

• Evert & Eichhorn (2017). Raven Biology of Plants. 8th Edition
• Taiz et al (2022). Plant Physiology and Development. 7th Edition
• Gurevitch J et al (2021). The Ecology of Plants. 3rd Edition 
• Attiwill PM & Wilson B (Eds) (2006). Ecology: An Australian Perspective.
• Willis KJ & McElwain JC (2014). The Evolution of Plants. 2nd Edition
• Schulze et al (2019). Plant Ecology 2nd Edition
• Lambers H et al (2019). Plant Physiological Ecology. 3rd Edition
• Chapin FS et al (2011). Principles of Terrestrial Ecosystem Ecology. 2nd Edition

Most lectures will include a list of key readings (journal articles, book chapters etc). Where possible, we will make these available, whether through the Library Reserve or through the unit iLearn page. Please note that many of these readings are available online as eBooks.

Technology used and required 

All course content will be made available via the iLearn unit webpage (the URL for iLearn is: http://ilearn.mq.edu.au/). You are expected to use iLearn for:

• Regularly checking subject announcements;
• Downloading lecture and reference materials; 
• Submitting assignments;
• Checking your grades;

Students will be required to use appropriate software, particularly Excel and R, for data analysis and graphing. R can be downloaded online for free from http://www.r-project.org.

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.

Based on student feedback, we have streamlined the on-campus session, which now consists of a one-day fieldwork activity.

To enable students more focus in the unit, we have revised the assessment structure as follows. There are now only three assessments: a skills assessment as portfolio, major report and final exam.