Reshaping Environments
Subject 880-102 (2008)
Note: This is an archived Handbook entry from 2008. Search for this in the current handbook
| Credit Points: | 12.500 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Level: | Undergraduate | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dates & Locations: | This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2008: Semester 1, - Taught on campus.
Semester 2, - Taught on campus.
On-campus Timetable can be viewed here. For information about these dates, click here. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Time Commitment: | Contact Hours: Two 1 hour lectures and one 2 hour tutorial. Total Time Commitment: 120 hours | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prerequisites: | None | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Corequisites: | None | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Recommended Background Knowledge: | None | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Non Allowed Subjects: | None | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Core Participation Requirements: | It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. This course requires all students to enrol in subjects where they must actively and safely contribute to class activities. Students who feel their disability will affect their meeting this requirement are encouraged to discuss this matter with the Subject Coordinator and the Disability Liaison Unit.Students undertaking this subject will be expected to regularly access an internet-enabled computer. |
Coordinator
Ruth Beilin| Subject Overview: | This subject explores how environments shape us and we humans reshape the environment. It examines human attitudes to, impacts on and interactions with the environments in which we live by considering ‘natural', transformed and built environments as sites of production and consumption, imagining and contest, in different parts of the globe. The subject considers the material relationship between the natural and built environments by exploring issues of resource use. Human demands for water, energy, food, fibres and minerals, will be examined in relation to the technologies and practices used to meet those needs, and the resulting creation of waste and pollution and impacts on climate and a range of ecosystems and species. These issues and processes will be presented and considered using thematic, geographically varied, historic and contemporary examples. The subject will operate at three ‘scales' including: ‘natural' landscapes and their ecosystems; cities and the urban environment; and buildings. |
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| Objectives: | Identify and describe the physical and social needs of humans within their environment(s).Identify and describe the ways that humans re-shape their environment to suit needs and expectations.Identify and describe the ways that economic, social and environmental norms shape environmentally significant actionIdentify and describe the physical consequences of human efforts to reshape their environmentDiscuss the human-environment relationships and the implications of this for future environmental design and management |
| Assessment: | A reflective journal throughout semester (10%); field assignment due before Week 7 (15%); tutorial presentations during the semester (10%); a three part project report 2000 words equivalent partially completed on line {due weeks 7, 9, 12} (45%); and a 2-hour take-home end of semester examination (20%). |
| Prescribed Texts: | TBA |
| Recommended Texts: | MCCONNELL, R. & ABEL, D. C. (2008) Environmental issues: an introduction to sustainability, Upper Saddle River, Pearson Prentice Hall.GOLDIE, J., DOUGLAS, B. & FURNASS, B. (Eds.) (2005) In search of sustainability, Canberra, CSIRO. |
| Breadth Options: | This subject potentially can be taken as a breadth subject component for the following courses:
You should visit learn more about breadth subjects and read the breadth requirements for your degree, and should discuss your choice with your student adviser, before deciding on your subjects. |
| Fees Information: | Subject EFTSL, Level, Discipline & Census Date |
| Generic Skills: | At the completion of this subject students should have developed the following skills: · Basic analytical skills for observing human-environment interactions; · Skills for the observation and interpretation of practices which transform natural and urban environments; · Skills in synthesizing, reporting on and discussing issues relevant to this subject. |
| Links to further information: | www.benvs.unimelb.edu.au |
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