Course Title: The Hydrosphere

Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: The Hydrosphere

Credit Points: 12.00

Important Information:

To participate in any RMIT course in-person activities or assessment, you will need to comply with RMIT vaccination requirements which are applicable during the duration of the course. This RMIT requirement includes being vaccinated against COVID-19 or holding a valid medical exemption. 

Please read this RMIT Enrolment Procedure as it has important information regarding COVID vaccination and your study at RMIT: https://policies.rmit.edu.au/document/view.php?id=209. 

Please read the Student website for additional requirements of in-person attendance: https://www.rmit.edu.au/covid/coming-to-campus 

Please check your Canvas course shell closer to when the course starts to see if this course requires mandatory in-person attendance. The delivery method of the course might have to change quickly in response to changes in the local state/national directive regarding in-person course attendance.


Terms

Course Code

Campus

Career

School

Learning Mode

Teaching Period(s)

ENVI1215

City Campus

Postgraduate

135H Applied Sciences

Face-to-Face

 Sem 1 2016

ENVI1215

City Campus

Postgraduate

171H School of Science

Face-to-Face

 Sem 1 2017,
Sem 1 2019,
Sem 1 2020,
Sem 1 2021,
Sem 1 2022

Course Coordinator: Dr Jeff Hughes

Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 9925 3370

Course Coordinator Email: jeff.hughes@rmit.edu.au

Course Coordinator Location: 3.2.16

Course Coordinator Availability: By appointment, by email


Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

No Pre-requisites

You maybe able to demonstrate the required skills and knowledge before you start this course. Contact your course coordinator if you think you maybe eligible for recognition of prior learning. For further information go to Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) in Higher Education


Course Description

This course covers the principles and mechanisms whereby water cycles through the hydrosphere and interacts with the atmosphere, lithosphere and biosphere. Field work provides skills in in-situ measurement of water quality parameters and sampling in rivers, estuaries, wetlands and of groundwater; and first-hand knowledge of our local water supply systems.




Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

This course also contributes to the following AQF 9 Program Learning Outcomes:

1. A Body of Knowledge

  • PLO 1.1: that includes the understanding of recent developments in the understanding of environmental processes and the technological advances in measurement techniques, remediation processes and pollution control
  • PLO 1.2: of the research principles and methods applicable to studying the chemical, biological and physical processes occurring in the environment
  • PLO 1.3 of the regulatory frameworks and ethical principles relevant to the practice of environmental science and associated technologies

2. Skills

  • PLO 2.1: cognitive skills which demonstrate mastery of theoretical knowledge about environmental processes enabling critical reflection on environmental theory and professional practice or scholarship
  • PLO 2.2: cognitive, technical and creative skills enabling you to investigate analyse and synthesise complex information, problems, concepts and theories about the environment, and to apply established theories to different areas of knowledge or practice concerning the environment
  • PLO 2.3: cognitive, technical and creative skills to enable you to generate and evaluate complex ideas about the environmental processes and concepts at an abstract level
  • PLO 2.4: communication skills to enable you to justify and interpret theoretical propositions, methodologies, conclusions and professional decisions to specialist and non-specialist audiences
  • PLO 2.5: technical and communication skills to design, evaluate, implement, analyse and theorise about developments that contribute to environmental professional practice and scholarship

3. Application of knowledge and skills

  • PLO 3.1: with creativity and initiative to new situations in your role as an environmental professional practitioner and/or in your further studies
  • PLO 3.2: with high level personal autonomy and accountability
  • PLO 3.3: with due regard to ethical conduct, the law and the safety of yourself and others around you



On successful completion of this course you should be able to:

  1. Demonstrate a broad and coherent knowledge and understanding of the hydrosphere;
  2. Gather, synthesize and critically evaluate information from a range of sources;
  3. Collect, record, interpret and draw conclusions from scientific data;
  4. Communicate effectively results, information or arguments on the hydrosphere, in writing;
  5. Work effectively, responsibly, ethically and safely in an individual or team context.
  6. Demonstrate knowledge that environmental science has interdisciplinary connections with other sciences.




Overview of Learning Activities

This course offers you the following learning opportunities:

  • Lectorials where syllabus material will be presented, explained and illustrated with examples;
  • Participation in field work;
  • Briefing and debriefing sessions for fieldwork which develop an integrated understanding of the subject matter;
  • Completion of on-line tests and written structured field reports
  • Private study, working through the coursework and other learning materials and gaining practice at solving conceptual and numerical problems.

These activities will help enhance your employability by further developing your knowledge and skills set, teamwork, oral and written communication and independent learning skills.




Overview of Learning Resources

The course Canvas site will give you easy access to learning materials such as theory notes, field trip details, briefing and debriefing notes and other resources, assessment task details and electronic submission folders.

The library has a subject guide for Environmental Science.

There is no textbook for this course. You may find that introductory texbooks on physical hydrology and on oceanography useful.



Overview of Assessment

Note that: ☒ All hurdle requirements for this course are indicated clearly in the assessment regime that follows, against the relevant assessment task(s) and all have been approved by the College Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor (Learning & Teaching).

Assessment for this course consists of:   

Assessment Task 1: Fortnightly on-line journal 

Weighting (10%)

This assessment task supports CLOs 4 and 6   


Assessment Task 2: Field Work 

Weighting(40%)

This assessment task supports CLOs 2, 3, 4,  & 5. For OHS and professional practice reasons, field work has two hurdle requirements: You must attend the fieldwork suitably prepared and participate in that fieldwork exercise in order to be eligible to submit the corresponding assessments.   Assessment Hurdle: You must achieve a minimum of 20% out of the 40% allocated to the fieldwork in order to pass this course.   


Assessment Task 3: An end of semester Tests

Weighting (50%)

This assessment task supports CLOs 1, 2,  & 4