SLE757 - Environmental Science and Global Change
Unit details
| Year | 2025 unit information |
|---|---|
| Enrolment modes: | Trimester 1: Burwood (Melbourne), Online |
| Credit point(s): | 1 |
| EFTSL value: | 0.125 |
| Unit Chair: | Trimester 1: Michalis Hadjikakou |
| Prerequisite: | Nil |
| Corequisite: | Nil |
| Incompatible with: | Nil |
| Educator-facilitated (scheduled) learning activities - on-campus unit enrolment: | 1 x 1 hour lecture per week, 1 x 2 hour seminar per week. |
| Educator-facilitated (scheduled) learning activities - online unit enrolment: | Online independent and collaborative learning including 1 x 1 hour online lecture per week, 1 x 2 hour online seminar per week. |
| Typical study commitment: | Students will on average spend 150 hours over the teaching period undertaking the teaching, learning and assessment activities for this unit. This will include educator guided online learning activities within the unit site. |
Content
Sustainability involves working across a range of different domains such as climate science and climate change; hydrology and water resources; food, agriculture, and land systems; ecology and biodiversity conservation; natural resource economics; health and environment; and pollution and waste management. It also involves working in different environments and contexts such as the tropics, arid regions, temperate regions, coasts and oceans, cities, and river systems. Human actions are profoundly impacting the environment at an unprecedented rate. Knowledge of the dimensions of global change and its impacts on the environment is therefore crucial and urgent. Science-based targets and evidence-based solutions to sustainability issues across different contexts and environments requires a solid scientific foundation. While you don’t need to be an expert in each of these fields, it helps immensely to have a broad understanding of the science underpinning environmental processes and global change dynamics.
Sustainability professionals need to be able to speak the same language as discipline experts and be able to piece together the big picture surrounding complex issues spanning people’s interaction with the environment. This unit draws on the concept of planetary boundaries to provide students with a solid scientific understanding around the existence of ‘tipping points’ and potential planetary thresholds. This enables students to appreciate the key earth system processes, the indicators used to measure their current status, the key human drivers exerting a negative impact on different aspects of the environment, and the solutions that can help humanity stay within environmental limits.
Learning Outcomes
| ULO | These are the Unit Learning Outcomes (ULOs) for this unit. At the completion of this unit, successful students can: | Alignment to Deakin Graduate Learning Outcomes (GLOs) |
|---|---|---|
| ULO1 | Understand the key components of environmental science underpinning the major aspects of global change and sustainability. | GLO1: Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities |
| ULO2 | Competently synthesise, summarise, and communicate complex concepts associated with environmental science to intelligent laypeople. | GLO2: Communication |
| ULO3 | Develop the technical skills to build a web page and to create a pod cast to synthesise and summarise complex scientific information to an interested but not necessarily expert public. | GLO3: Digital literacy |
| ULO4 | Critically assess multiple sources of scientific information and evaluate the quality and credibility of this information. | GLO4: Critical thinking |
Assessment
| Assessment Description | Student output | Grading and weighting (% total mark for unit) | Indicative due week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assessment 1 | Web page, 1,000 word maximum | 30% | Week 5 |
| Assessment 2 | Voice recording, 10-minutes maximum | 30% | Week 8 |
| Assessment 3 | Written report, 1,500 word maximum | 40% | Week 12 |
The assessment due weeks provided may change. The Unit Chair will clarify the exact assessment requirements, including the due date, at the start of the teaching period.
Learning resource
The texts and reading list for SLE757 can be found via the University Library.
Note: Select the relevant trimester reading list. Please note that a future teaching period's reading list may not be available until a month prior to the start of that teaching period so you may wish to use the relevant trimester's prior year reading list as a guide only.
Unit Fee Information
Fees and charges vary depending on the type of fee place you hold, your course, your commencement year, the units you choose to study and their study discipline, and your study load.
Tuition fees increase at the beginning of each calendar year and all fees quoted are in Australian dollars ($AUD). Tuition fees do not include textbooks, computer equipment or software, other equipment or costs such as mandatory checks, travel and stationery.
For further information regarding tuition fees, other fees and charges, invoice due dates, withdrawal dates, payment methods visit our Current Students website.