units

APG4427

Faculty of Arts

18 September 2017 22 November 2024
Monash University

Postgraduate - Unit

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2014 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

print version

6 points, SCA Band 2, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered, or view unit timetables.

LevelPostgraduate
FacultyFaculty of Arts
Organisational UnitPhysical Geography
OfferedClayton First semester 2014 (On-campus block of classes)
Coordinator(s)Professor Nigel Tapper

Notes

Previously coded ENV4040

Synopsis

Drawing on environmental expertise from inside and outside the university, this unit provides students with a fundamental technical understanding of a range of contemporary and emerging environmental issues such as loss of biodiversity, global warming, waste management, genetic engineering, water scarcity and management, and urban and rural sustainability. Throughout, the coordinator will ensure that social concepts and frameworks of sustainability are woven into a more comprehensive technical understanding of the environmental issues. The unit also considers responses proposed and/or implemented to address the various environmental issues.

Outcomes

Students successfully completing this unit will be expected to demonstrate:

  1. A fundamental understanding of the scientific basis of a range of key environmental issues.
  2. The ability to recognize that scientific understanding of major environmental issues is not complete, and that there are a range of scientific perspectives that can be brought to bear on any particular environmental issue.
  3. The ability to apply social concepts and frameworks of sustainability to key environmental issues.
  4. An awareness of the responses proposed and/or implemented in response to key environmental issues.
  5. A capacity to construct critical and analytical argument in oral and written form, relevant to discussion of major environmental issues.

Assessment

Reading commentaries 1000 words 25%
Oral presentation (debate participation) Equivalent to 500 words 25%
Research essay 3000 words 50%

Chief examiner(s)

Professor Nigel Tapper

Workload requirements

Two, two-day intensive class sessions held in weeks 3 and 5