R05 RA Master of Science - Geography (not offered until 2010)

Students must complete a total of 200 points comprising:

• 75 points of discipline subjects including Advanced Reading in Geography;
• 25 points of professional tools subjects; and
• a 100 point Research Project.

This course is only available on a full-time basis commencing in semester one. Students will complete the discipline subjects and the professional tools subjects in year one and the research project in year two.

Core discipline subjects (50 points)

Students must take:

• Advanced Reading in Geography (available semester 2, 2010)

Students must take 37.5 points selected from:

• 121-511 Management of Australian Ecosystems

• 121-512 Integrated River & Catchment Management

• 121-529 Social Impact Assessment and Evaluation

• 121-532 Environmental Impact Assessment

• 121-537 Heritage and Cultural Environments

• 121-548 Climate Change Politics and Policy

• Hazardous Coasts

• Environmental Reconstruction

• Development and Environment in China (25 points)

Elective discipline subjects (25 points)

• 207-505 Global Environment and Sustainability

• 451-610 Fundamentals of GIS

• 600-604 Environmental Risk Assessment

• 600-601 Environmental Sampling and Analysis

• 625-634 Climate Affairs

Professional tools (25 points)

Business Tools

• 600-614 Business Tools: Money, People and Projects

• Business Tools: The Market Environment (available semester 1, 2010)

Science Tools

• Critical Analysis in Science (available semester 2, 2010)

• eScience (available semester 2, 2010)

• 600-617 Systems Modelling and Simulation

• 600-618 Ethics and Responsibility in Science

• 600-615 Thinking and Reasoning with Data

Communication Tools

• 600-616 Science in Context

• 600-619 Science and Communication

Research Project (100 points)

Students must comple a 23,000 word thesis due at the end of semester 2 (100%).

Students will select an approved Geography topic/research project in consultation with the supervisor/s. Student must also write a research proposal, give an oral presentation on the proposed research and an oral presentation towards the end of the project summing up the results of the research.

The thesis should demonstrate a critical application of specialist knowledge and make an independent contribution to existing scholarship in the area of research.

At the completion of this course, students should:

• be familiar with current debates in their chosen field of geographic inquiry;
• be able to develop research questions from a critical reading of a body of literature;
• be able to design a field or laboratory based research project; and
• gain an understanding of major conceptual debates in physical geography, and their implications for research methodology.