Environmental Tools and Technologies (11775.1)

1. Environmental Chemistry by Stanley Manahan https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781315160474

Highly Recomended as will be used in some weeks

2. Environmental Chemical Analysis By S. Mitra , Pradyot Patnaik , B.B. Kebbekus, https://www.routledge.com/Environmental-Chemical-Analysis/Mitra-Patnaik- Kebbekus/p/book/9780849338380

3. Sampling and Analysis of Environmental Chemical Pollutants 2nd Edition by E Popek, ¿https://www.elsevier.com/books/sampling-and-analysis-of-environmental-chemical- pollutants/popek/978-0-12-803202-2

4. Environmental DNA: For Biodiversity Research and Monitoring.  by P Taberlet et al. https://academic.oup.com/book/32663

5. Statistics and Chemometrics for Analytical Chemistry 7E, J Miller and J Miller and R Miller. https://www.pearson.com/store/p/statistics-and-chemometrics-for-analytical-chemistry/P200000005030/9781292186719

Final assessment will be based on successful completion of each component of this Unit. To attain a pass grade or better in this Unit, the following criteria apply.

The pass the unit the student must:

• attend all field, laboratory and workshop activities (more then 2 absences can lead to a fail for the unit)
• attempt all assessment items; 
• and achieve minimum 50% (>49.49%) aggregate or higher for the total of individual assignments, which are worth 50% of the total unit mark;
• and achieve minimum 50% (>49.49%) or higher, after peer assessment adjustment (see section 6c) for the group assignments, which are worth 50% of the total unit mark.

If the conditions for a pass are met, the grade will be awarded as follows:

HD 85–100% DI 75–84% CR 65–74% P 50 – 64%

• non-attempted assessment items will obtain 0%.

The convener reserves the right to orally examine any individual student or team. The oral examination mark can replace any component mark or the total mark for the unit.

The total workload for this unit is 150 hours. To achieve top marks for this unit students should plan to need the full 150 hours of commitment, as the unit is designed with those 150 hours of commitment in mind (not less!).

The face-to-face contact time for this unit consists of eleven 2-hour lectures and seven 2 hour practicals and two 5 hour fieldworks.

Thus the total formal contact time equates to 11x2 + 7x2 +2x5 = 22 + 14 + 10 = 46 hours during the semester.

The preparation for the Thursday lecture or tutorials will require at least 3 hours per week of self-study (12 weeks x 3 = 36 hours in total).

The remaining 68 hours should be apportioned according to the weighting for each assessment item. 

Peer group marking scheme:
The three group assignments are subject to a peer assessment marking scheme. Each group member will get a mark weighted for their contribution to the group effort.
The peer assessment is done after the final report submission when each group member will assess their fellow group members (and themselves) in an anonymous survey about the level of contribution of each member to the group effort. After the survey the convener will use the assessment to adjust the mark of each individual group member. Thus, some students might get higher marks than the overall group mark, and some students might get lower marks but the average mark for the whole group will remain the same. It is important to note that if a student does not contribute at all to the group work, their mark for the group component could be halved and resulting in failing the unit if the other individual marks (50%) are low too. Many years of experience has shown that this peer marking scheme fairly attributes appropriate marks to each group member; it penalises freeloaders and rewards hard workers.

MSWord, MS Excel, MS Powerpoint and R skills. Students will get an introduction to basic GIS skills

The students will need to purchase one hard cover laboratory notebook costing less than $30. See section 4b for details

There will be no cost associated with the required field trips. The cost of transport to the field sites will be covered by the University of Canberra.

Students will  need to provide the following for the field trips:

• A water bottle and a snack
• Field clothing: long trousers (no shorts or no leggings as snakes can bite through) and sturdy shoes.
• Rain coat
• Hat and sunscreen
• Camera, mobile phone with camera will suffice.
• Laboratoty notebook for recording field notes

Research led Unit: This unit involves research-led education. There are active researchers delivering this unit who are able to engage students in deep and active learning and transmit to students their passion for the research they are carrying out.

Provision of information to the group: Notifications through the Canvas Announcements Forum or the Canvas Discussion Forums are deemed to be made to the whole class. It is the responsibility of the student to ensure that they check for announcements on the Unit's Canvas website (Canvas forum messages are also emailed to student email addresses only). Students should ensure they check their student email regularly. The Moodle discussion forums will be checked by staff regularly.

Use of student email account: The University Email policy states that "students wishing to contact the University via email regarding administrative or academic matters need to send the email from the University account for identity verification purposes". Therefore all unit enquiries should be emailed using a student university email account. Students should contact servicedesk@canberra.edu.au if they have any issues accessing their university email account.