91123 Nature and Evolution
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Subject handbook information prior to 2025 is available in the Archives.
Credit points: 6 cp
Result type: Grade and marks
Description
The existence of all species on our planet today has been made possible through the evolution of a vast diversity of biota, and there is considerable variation among living organisms and how they interact with their environment. Students develop their understanding of the biological complexity of life by investigating the question: What does it take for life to exist in the range of habitats across the globe? Students learn about the adaptations that bacteria, archaea, protists, plants, animals and fungi have evolved over time in response to changing environmental conditions and that allow biota to inhabit the vast array of ecosystems on Earth. The major taxa are explored with reference to their evolution over time, that is movement from water to land and in some cases back again. By running a short-term monitoring experiment to explore the importance biotic and abiotic requirements for a sustainable ecosystem, students learn how to generate testable hypotheses, collect scientific data and communication of research findings. The subject concludes with a reflection of today’s pressures on biodiversity and how these shape current trends in evolution and species diversity.
Subject learning objectives (SLOs)
Upon successful completion of this subject students should be able to:
| 1. | Explain the fundamental principles of evolution by natural selection and its role in shaping the diversity of life on Earth. |
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| 2. | Evaluate the role of environmental factors in driving evolutionary processes and shaping species distributions. |
| 3. | Distinguish among the major groups of organisms within each biological kingdom using key adaptations over evolutionary history. |
| 4. | Design and test a hypothesis about ecosystem function, collect data and interpret experimental findings. |
| 5. | Communicate effectively about evolutionary biology topics through written reports and scientific discussions. |
Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)
This subject also contributes specifically to the development of following course intended learning outcomes:
- Demonstrate theoretical and technical knowledge of broad science concepts and explain specialised disciplinary knowledge. (1.1)
- Evaluate scientific evidence and apply effective experimental design and/or mathematical reasoning, analysis, and critical thinking to apply science and/or mathematic methodologies to real world problems. (2.1)
- Work autonomously or in teams to address workplace or community problems utilising best scientific practice, with consideration to safety requirements and ethical guidelines. (3.1)
- Design creative solutions to contemporary or complex scientific issues by incorporating innovative methods, reflective practices, and self-directed learning. (4.1)
- Present and communicate complex ideas and justifications using appropriate communication approaches from a variety of methods (oral, written, visual) to communicate with discipline experts, scientists, industry, and the general public. (5.1)
Contribution to the development of graduate attributes
The Faculty of Science lists six graduate attributes that you will develop during your course at UTS. This subject is intended to develop five of those attributes:
GA 1. Disciplinary knowledge
You will learn about evolutionary and biological processes, ecosystems, food webs and the qualities of the major groups of biological organisms through online lectures and practical classes, and via independent online learning activities associated with your subject textbook. By attending and actively participating in laboratory practicals (pracs), you will consolidate your new knowledge and develop a suite of practical skills such as using microscopes, scientific drawings, animal dissections and conducting scientific experiments. Your understanding of evolutionary concepts and biological organisms is assessed in task 1 and 3, and your understanding of food webs and ecosystems will be assessed in task 2.
GA 2. Research, Inquiry and Critical Thinking
Scientific inquiry, critical thinking, logical thought and problem-solving skills will be developed during hands-on laboratory practicals. Each week you will explore a different major taxonomic group and their adaptations to their environment, and apply microscope and scientific drawing skills to your investigations. You will develop the ability to follow a line of scientific inquiry through generating a scientific hypothesis, which you then test by conducting a manipulative experiment. Feedback from your teaching associates throughout the practicals will support your scientific inquiry. You will learn research conduct via weekly data collection for your ecosystem experiment, and through modules on scientific writing and finding, paraphrasing and referencing scientific literature. The depth of scientific inquiry and of your ability to conduct meaningful scientific research will be assessed through your ecosystem report (task 2), and through your prac notes, the quality of your hypothesis, and logic behind your justification of treatments for your Ecosystem experiment (task 1).
GA 3. Professional, Ethical and Social Responsibility
Being an effective and collegial member of a productive team is a key professional skill in scientific endeavours. Teamwork is developed as you work in small groups to design and monitor your ecosystem experiment. Through peer review exercises you will develop professional conduct and an understanding of the role of the scientific community in the peer review process of science. Your ability to give constructive feedback will be assessed as part of assessment task 1.
GA 4. Reflection, Innovation, Creativity
The ability to make effective judgments about your own work and academic writing will be developed via individual and group exercises that successively prepare you to write your Ecosystem report. Before beginning your experiment, you will receive guidelines on developing a scientific hypothesis and learn how to justify your treatment choice, and upon its completion you will review your peers' abstracts using the assessment criteria by which your own report will be graded. You will then exchange constructive feedback with your peers and teaching associates, which you can reflect on in your own time to improve your written communication skills in your ecosystem report.
GA 5. Communication
Excellence in written scientific communication is developed through the completion of independent learning activities and through the process of writing a comprehensive scientific report in the format of a journal article. You will work through a series of online modules designed to further develop your scientific writing, and revise how to uphold academic integrity, find, paraphrase and reference scientific literature. To complement the online modules, a practical class is dedicated to revising report structure, learning appropriate data analysis and visualisation techniques to communicate scientific results for your scientific report, and revising strategies for finding, paraphrasing and referencing scientific literature. Clear and logical writing that follows standard practice in scientific communication is assessed via detailed marking criteria for your ecosystem report (task 2).
Teaching and learning strategies
This subject is delivered in a blended learning approach, with a mixture of pre-recorded lectures, hands-on laboratory practicals and independent learning activities to develop discipline-specific knowledge and scientific inquiry, and to become proficient in scientific writing.
In the lectures we will journey through the evolution of life on Earth while highlighting current research frontiers throughout, providing context for recent advances in deciphering evolutionary history. Lectures are pre-recorded and will be made available on Canvas at the beginning of each week. They involve visual aids and videos to support alternative modes of learning, and they are supplemented with online activities to provide continuous feedback on content understanding. Online lectures and associated exercises need to be completed before attending your practical classes held on campus.
In the laboratory practicals you will deepen and extend your learning from lectures and train important laboratory and experimental skills in Life Sciences. You will work independently and in small groups through your practical manual, and have an opportunity to ask subject related questions. In the first practical class you will design an 'Ecosystem in a Bottle', about which you will write your final report. You will review your ecosystem each week and collect data in your practical manual – an essential process of being a scientist. A practical class is dedicated to practising and refining your scientific writing skills, where you will receive detailed information about this assessment task and learn essential academic and scientific skills for writing your report. Alongside this major experiment, you will explore the diversity and adaptations of the major taxonomic groups through a series of practical activities, including the use of microscopes, practicing scientific drawings, animal dissections and conducting smaller experiments. Your practical manual will be provided during your first class, and as part of your learning you will need to take notes, respond to questions and draw diagrams related to the practical materials in your manual.
Given the fundamental importance of laboratory work in this subject to your future career as a scientist, you are strongly encouraged to attend all eight practical classes for the timetabled duration.
Independent learning activities support and complement the lectures and laboratory practicals and allow for your continuous improvement of academic and scientific writing skills. The activities include online modules and written exercises which you complete at your own pace before the laboratory practicals. During the practicals you will receive feedback from peers and Teaching Associates. These activities serve as an opportunity for benchmarking your performance and to receive constructive feedback on multiple components of the final report before starting to write the report.
This subject is associated with the Mastering Biology textbook, and links to relevant chapters and optional self-check quizzes will be posted on Canvas. While the textbook cannot replace lectures or laboratory practicals, it helps to deepen and to query understanding of key concepts learned in class.
Academic language proficiency
An aim of this subject is to help you develop academic and professional language and communication skills to succeed at university and in the workplace. During this subject, you will complete a milestone assessment task that will, in addition to assessing your subject-specific learning objectives, assess your English language proficiency.
Delivery modes
Nature and Evolution is taught during both Spring and Summer sessions, and delivery mode differs between the sessions.
Spring delivery includes 2 hours of pre-recorded online lectures each week plus one 3-hour laboratory practical held on campus for eight weeks. Independent learning activities (excluding textbook readings) will take approximately 1 hours per week to complete.
Summer delivery is condensed to six weeks of lectures (4 hours of pre-recorded online lectures each week) and four weeks of laboratory practicals (two 3-hour laboratory practicals held on campus each week). Independent learning activities (excluding textbook readings) will take approximately 2 hours per week to complete.
Please check your timetable and Canvas for scheduling details.
Content (topics)
You will learn about organisms in an evolutionary and ecological context. We begin by defining living systems and examine the relationships among organisms and their living and non-living environment. We learn about organisms as part of ecosystems, including a brief background of trophic structure and ecosystem cycles. We then revisit the concept of evolution by natural selection by way of introducing the very first life on Earth. Through an evolutionary sequence, the major domains and kingdoms are explored, including Archaea, Bacteria, Protists, Algae, Fungi, Plants and Animals. At each stage, the ecological context for the evolution of different groups is discussed to encourage an appreciation for similarities and differences among them. For example, a key theme running through this subject is the dependence on water for life and the ways different organisms have evolved to colonise regions where water is not abundant. Throughout the subject you will learn about life in context – not only where and how organisms live today, but also the relevance of these organisms to each other as well as to humans, and ultimately, why we should care to preserve the incredible diversity of living organisms that inhabit our plant today.
Assessment
Assessment task 1: Lab-based application of knowledge
| Intent: | This assessment task contributes to the development of the following graduate attributes: 1. Disciplinary knowledge |
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| Objective(s): | This assessment task addresses subject learning objective(s): 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 This assessment task contributes to the development of course intended learning outcome(s): 1.1, 2.1, 3.1, 4.1 and 5.1 |
| Type: | Laboratory/practical |
| Groupwork: | Individual |
| Weight: | 40% |
| Criteria: | This assessment task evaluates lab-based application of knowledge and conceptual understanding of key evolutionary and scientific concepts, including synthesising different components from both lectures and pracs, and assessing skills learned in laboratory practicals. You will learn how to formulate a scientific hypothesis and how to chose treatments that allow testing your hypothesis, which are assessed by your teaching associates during the first prac. Taking detailed notes about the experiment is key for writing a good report, and your teaching associates will assess and provide feedback on your written notes about the Ecosystem experiment during each class. Morever, you will be assessed on the quality of feedback you provide on an abstract about the Ecosystem experiment from your peers, and you will then have the opportunity to revise your own abstract before your teaching associate marks your abstract against the same criteria. This ensures that you understand professional scientific conduct, are able to synthesise the key findings from your experiment and learn what is required for a high quality Ecosystem report before you begin writing the full report. You will be assessed on:
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Assessment task 2: Practical Report
| Intent: | This assessment task contributes to the development of the following graduate attributes: |
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| Objective(s): | This assessment task addresses subject learning objective(s): 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 This assessment task contributes to the development of course intended learning outcome(s): 1.1, 2.1, 3.1, 4.1 and 5.1 |
| Type: | Report |
| Groupwork: | Group, individually assessed |
| Weight: | 30% |
| Criteria: | Thorough guidelines on writing the report and detailed assessment criteria for marking the report are laid out in the practical manual and on Canvas. You have access to the criteria required to complete a high quality Ecosystem report before you even begin the Ecosystem experiment, and you will receive feedback from your peers and teaching associates on various components that are essential for writing your final report before your final report is due. During your first prac, you will learn how to formulate a scientific hypothesis and discuss options with your peers and teachers how to chose treatments that allow testing your hypothesis. This helps your group choose a treatment option that is taylored to your individual hypotheses, ensuring that you conduct a meaningful experiment by applying an effective experimental design. Morever, you will receive feedback from your peers and teaching associates on a draft abstract for your Ecosystem report, ensuring that you understand the key findings from your experiment and what is required for a high quality ecosystem report before you begin writing the full report. NOTES: (1) A student who submits a report that is detected to contain fabricated work (report is on a topic other than the experiment conducted during pracs 1-4) or plagiarised work (copied from another student or re-submission of previously submitted work in any form, including your own report from a previous unit and reports found on the internet or some other source), or who has clearly allowed another student to copy their work, will be penalized according to university rules. Such action may result in a zero mark for the report. (2) This task includes a milestone assessment component that evaluates English language proficiency. You may be guided to further language support after the completion of this subject if your results in this milestone task indicate you need more help with your language skills. |
Assessment task 3: Comprehension and Synthesis Quiz
| Intent: | This assessment task contributes to the development of the following graduate attributes: |
|---|---|
| Objective(s): | This assessment task addresses subject learning objective(s): 1, 2 and 3 This assessment task contributes to the development of course intended learning outcome(s): 1.1 and 2.1 |
| Type: | Quiz/test |
| Groupwork: | Individual |
| Weight: | 30% |
| Criteria: | The Comprehension and Synthesis Quiz evaluates your knowledge comprehension and conceptual understanding, including synthesising different components from both lectures and pracs, and assessing skills learned in prac classes. You will be assessed on:
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Minimum requirements
You are strongly encouraged to attend all lectures and each of the eight practical classes during the session. There is no opportunity to catch up if a practical class is missed, and you won't have complete data for writing your ecosystem report.
Assessment task 2 includes a milestone assessment component that evaluates English language proficiency. You may be guided to further language support after the completion of this subject if your results in this milestone task indicate you need more help with your language skills.
In order to pass this subject you must obtain an overall mark of 50% or more.
Required texts
The text book required for this subject is:
Urry, LA, Meyers, N, Cain, ML, Wasserman, SA, Minorsky, PV, Orr, R, Da Silva KB, Parkinson, A, Lluka, L and P Chunduri (2021). Campbell Biology: Australian Version, 12th edition, Pearson Australia Group, Australia.
It is available via Canvas and your library.
Recommended texts
Additional resources are provided on Canvas.