Units

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Sample subject outline - Semester 2 2013

Note: Subject outlines often change before the semester begins. Below is a sample outline.

Rationale

Sustainability principles and practices are rapidly becoming embedded within all built environment and engineering professions, from planning, design, constructing and maintaining buildings and infrastructure, through to mining and manufacturing, energy and water utilities, tourism and hospitality. In the near future, professionals will be required to integrate these principles and practices into every day practice.

Aims

The unit aims to expose students to key sustainability principles that are transforming professional practice across all key sectors in Australia, highlighting the current state of sustainability in built environment and engineering, and considering how the principles translate into sustainable built environment and engineering practice.

Objectives

On completion of this unit, you should be able to:

1. Demonstrate an understanding of sustainability principles and challenges in the built environment and engineering practices as well as a sense of professional and personal responsibility;
2. Demonstrate skills in dealing with sustainable design, engineering, and construction issues, methods and processes;
3. Describe the development and implementation processes of sustainable technologies, systems, products and services for cross-disciplinary applications;
4. Critique current 'best practice' in relation to sustainability principles and practice, in your field of interest.

Content

The unit suggests that conventional practices in the built environment use policies methods and tools that are not well suited to achieving sustainability. For example, managerial approaches are designed to predict, monitor, measure and mitigate the relative harm that a product, development or building may do in the future. However, they do not often address the win-win, positive development opportunities that are possible.

Sustainable development is fundamentally a whole of system design problem, where negative environmental pressures are decoupled from economic growth. Within this context, topics will include an overview of the global context for sustainable development, followed by consideration of principles including resource efficiency, green chemistry and engineering, biomimicry and whole system design. Students will investigate how these apply to their field of interest.

Approaches to Teaching and Learning

Teaching Mode: Flexible mode
Lectures: 16 hours during two weekend intensive days, Saturday 4 August (Week 2, 9.00am - 6.00pm) and Sunday 12 August (Week 3, 9.00am - 6.00pm).
Tutorials: 3 hours, comprising 1 hour each in Week 5, 8 and 11 (Tuesday 4-5pm).

Modes of delivery
There are two main modes of face-to-face delivery in this unit: lectures and tutorials.

The lectures are general and introduce theory and major topics that are crucial to a shift to sustainable development. Lectures draw on a number of textbooks and provide a wide range of contextual information. The lectures will explain the context for sustainable development (see topics described above), and emerging regulatory and market based incentives, measurement and management methods. Materials to accompany the lectures will be made available via Blackboard.

The tutorials will provide students with opportunities to have face-to-face meetings with their assignment groups, facilitated by tutors who will discuss issues and share reflections using group discussion.

Assessment

Report: The major assignment is a literature review (see separate assignment descriptions, templates and CRA sheets). The report is due by 5pm on Friday Week 12. The paper will be marked using criterion referenced assessment (CRA) to enable you to understand how your work can be improved. The markers are independent assessors who are across the unit content.

Discussion Forum: Online participation and development of part of the major report assessment item will be assessed by the tutors through student submissions on Blackboard, and their determination is final.

Exam: The exam will be objective questions, comprising content from lectures, tutorials and readings provided during the semester. You will be assessed on what you learn in this particular unit, not prior knowledge. Attendance at lectures and doing the readings is therefore required.Substance: You are encouraged to email or make appointments with the coordinator to discuss any intellectual issues about unit substance with the coordinator. Tutors are from diverse professional backgrounds and are not expected to be experts in all areas covered by the unit.

Process: Clarification about process or assignments should be asked after you have reviewed the assignment templates, instructions and CRA sheets provided on Blackboard. Please read all these materials in the first week and seek clarification by the beginning of Week 3, preferably during the intensive weekend sessions.

Assessment name: Report
Description: You will prepare a report that addresses a sustainable development issue in groups, following specific templates (see separate assignment instructions, templates and CRA sheets).
Relates to objectives: 1, 2, 3, 4
Weight: 40%
Internal or external: Internal
Group or individual: Group
Due date: Week 12

Assessment name: Examination (written)
Description: Objective test on content from lectures and tutorials (including computer sense sheets).
Relates to objectives: 1, 3
Weight: 40%
Internal or external: Internal
Group or individual: Individual
Due date: Exam period

Assessment name: Reflective Journal
Description: Online Participation.
You will be required to complete two reflective written pieces for submission via the blackboard website, which will complement the report assessment item, following specific templates (see separate assignment instructions, templates and CRA sheets). The first reflective piece will be reviewed by tutors for formative feedback, wherein it can be improved for assessment submission.
Relates to objectives: 1, 3
Weight: 20%
Internal or external: Internal
Group or individual: Individual
Due date: During semester

Academic Honesty

QUT is committed to maintaining high academic standards to protect the value of its qualifications. To assist you in assuring the academic integrity of your assessment you are encouraged to make use of the support materials and services available to help you consider and check your assessment items. Important information about the university's approach to academic integrity of assessment is on your unit Blackboard site.

A breach of academic integrity is regarded as Student Misconduct and can lead to the imposition of penalties.

Resource materials

Students will be provided with a number of required readings that will be accessible via the blackboard site.

A number of optional reading text books will also be highlighted on the blackboard site, catering to the wide variety of backgrounds for students studying this unit. These include the following (20% or more of the first three is freely available to students via www.naturaledgeproject.net):
1. Smith, M., Hargroves, K., and Desha, C. (2010) Cents and Sustainability: Securing Our Common Future by Decoupling Economic Growth from Environmental Pressures, The Natural Edge Project, Earthscan, London.

2. von Weizsäcker, E., Hargroves, K., Smith, M., Desha, C. and Stasinopoulos, P. (2009) Factor 5: Transforming the Global Economy through 80% Increase in Resource Productivity, Earthscan, UK and Droemer, Germany

3. Stasinopoulos, P., Smith, M., Hargroves, K. and Desha, C. (2008) Whole System Design: An Integrated Approach to Sustainable Engineering, The Natural Edge Project, Earthscan, London.

4. Birkeland, J. (2008) Positive Development: From Vicious Circles to Virtuous Cycles, Earthscan, UK.

Risk assessment statement

There are no out of the ordinary risks associated with this unit, which is taught in a lecture theatre or classroom setting on campus. No laboratory or workshop is involved.

Disclaimer - Offer of some units is subject to viability, and information in these Unit Outlines is subject to change prior to commencement of semester.

Last modified: 31-May-2012