Handbook : Unit informationEdith Cowan University

School: Science

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

Please note that given the circumstances of COVID-19, there may be some modifications to the assessment schedule promoted in Handbook for Semester 1 2020 Units. Students will be notified of all approved modifications by Unit Coordinators via email and Unit Blackboard sites. Where changes have been made, these are designed to ensure that you still meet the unit learning outcomes in the context of our adjusted teaching and learning arrangements.

• Unit Title

  Geography and Environment: People, Pattern, Process

• Unit Code

  GEO1150

• Year

  2020

• Enrolment Period

  1

• Version

  2

• Credit Points

  15

• Full Year Unit

  N

• Mode of Delivery

  On Campus
  

• Unit Coordinator

  Dr David John BLAKE

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Description

This introductory unit explores the interplay of past and present physical and ecological processes in shaping the human environment. Emphasis is given to the complex and dynamic relationships between people and places. Students investigate interactions between people and environmental systems and processes in such themes as the environment as an integrated system, and the changing form and function of the built environment. These themes are expressed locally and have broader global significance. The unit draws on interdisciplinary perspectives and students develop geographical skills and knowledge through practical activities and field projects

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

1. Demonstrate the ability to use conceptual frameworks such as the ecosystem approach and cultural landscapes.
2. Describe some of the complex interrelationships that exist between the natural and cultural environment.
3. Develop and interpret data from geographical sources, such as maps, photographs and satellite imagery.
4. Identify and analyse social and environmental problems in a geographical context, including fieldwork.

Unit Content

1. Cultural and cross-cultural relationships to the environment e.g. Aboriginal, colonial, post colonial and multicultural perspectives on landscape and environment.
2. Cultural landscape theory, sustainable cities, communities and ecosystems.
3. Ecosystems as an expression of the integrated environment, e.g. the role of water in the natural and cultural landscape.
4. Frameworks for understanding the natural and social environment.
5. Processes operating in the physical and biological environment.
6. Processes operating in the social and urban environment, e.g. the city as a reflection of its society.
7. The development of modern urban planning, emphasising sustainable cities.
8. The nature of geographical enquiry.
9. Time, change and periodicity in the understanding of geographical phenomena and environmental processes.

Learning Experience

Students will attend on campus classes as well as engage in learning activities through ECU Blackboard.

For more information see the Semester Timetable

Additional Learning Experience Information

Lectures, workshops, fieldwork

Assessment

GS1 GRADING SCHEMA 1 Used for standard coursework units

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant Board of Examiners.

Core Reading(s)

• Arbogast, A. F. (2017). Discovering Physical Geography. Wiley. Retrieved from https://ecu.on.worldcat.org/oclc/1007071759
• Greiner, A. (2018). Chapter 1 What is human geography? In Visualising Human Geography (pp. 1–28). Wiley. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ecu/reader.action?docID=5106305&ppg=17

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