Undergraduate - UnitNUT3004 - Nutrition controversies

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.

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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.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences
Organisational Unit	Department of Nutrition and Dietetics
Offered	Clayton First semester 2014 (Day) Clayton Second semester 2014 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Dr Tracy McCaffrey

Synopsis

Nutrition controversies will focus on developing student's fundamental scientific knowledge and critical reasoning skills in the area of nutritional science. Building from earlier units that taught principles relating to evaluation of evidence and advanced research methodologies combined with a solid background in physiology, immunology and biochemistry this unit will link diet and disease outcomes using available evidence.

This unit will enable nutritionists to develop an appreciation for the controversial and unresolved nature of the reported associations between dietary factors and disease processes by providing the opportunity for in-depth, critical evaluation of the underpinning evidence and identification of unresolved questions and/or alternative opinions. Examples of current nutritional controversies will be drawn from topics studied across the range of other units on the course and students allocated to two topics.

Teaching activities in this unit will have an emphasis on student centered enquiry supported by a series of student-led seminars and discussions and a written synthesis of assigned topics.

Outcomes

Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:

Detail the scientific background and current consensus of opinion in a selected area of controversial research in human nutrition
Identify the major sources of nutritional literature in a systemic way in order to collect information in a selected topic
Critically evaluate scientific evidence underpinning a selected area of research in human nutrition
Discuss scientific literature and draw reasoned conclusions
Formulate an opinion based on a critical review of the existing evidence for a specific topic in topics related to human nutrition
Engage in critical discussions on the nutritional controversies assigned
Competently communicate scientific knowledge and understanding in oral and written formats.

Assessment

Critical report 1 and 2 (60%)
Oral presentation 1 and 2 (40%)

Chief examiner(s)

Dr Tracy McCaffrey

Workload requirements

Seminars: 2 hours/week, Tutorials: 1 hour/week, SDL: 10 hours/week.

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Nutrition and dietetics

Prerequisites

Must pass each of BND1002, BND1101, BND2002 and BND2103
or
Must pass BND1010 and a combination of any two relevant units (at the discretion of the unit convenor) from the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences with a biochemistry and physiology component such as: PHY2032, PHY2042, BMS2031, BMS2021, BCH2022.