units

NUT3004

Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences

Monash University

Undergraduate - Unit

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2015 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.

LevelUndergraduate
FacultyFaculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences
Organisational UnitDepartment of Nutrition and Dietetics
OfferedClayton First semester 2015 (Day)
Coordinator(s)Dr Lisa Ryan

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

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

Assessment

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

Workload requirements

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

See also Unit timetable information

Chief examiner(s)

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

Prerequisites

Students must pass one of the following sets of units:
+ BND1010, HSC1101 and HSC1102; or
+ BND1001, BND1101, BND2002 and BND2103; or
+ BND1010 and 2 units from BCH2022, BMS2021, BMS2031, PHY2032 or PHY2042.