ATS1310: Extreme Earth! Natural Hazards and Human Vulnerability

10 Tutorial Worksheets worth 2% each = 20% in Total
Short Essay worth 15%
Major Research Essay worth 40%
Briefing Paper worth 25%

This unit was pretty fun and a good break from all my other Science units. It is a mixture of science and social science so it isn't devoid of Science. Megan was a pretty good lecturer and the lectures were decent however I started to get a bit lazy in the second half of the semester and skipped watching the lectures. The weekly tutorials are compulsory as the Weekly quiz is only open during your specific tutorial time so make sure you show up as these Tutorial worksheets are pretty much free marks since your lecturer will essentially feed you most of the answers. The prescribed readings in my opinion weren't too necessary unless you are planning to major in Human Geography as I still did well on my Weekly tutorial quizzes.

In terms of what's hard about this unit, the assignments are what makes this unit (and arguably most Arts units I think) more annoying than the Science units. The short essay has a really small word limit of 500 words(+/- 10%) so it was really hard to get everything into the word limit. Since this is the first essay, they do mark it slightly more leniently. The Major research essay on the other hand is 2000 words (+/- 10%) and was certainly a pain especially with the amount of research journal references we needed to use. Make sure you spend a lot of time on the Major research essay and don't leave it to the last few days like I did as my grade for this essay wasn't too great. The last assignment is the Briefing Paper which is basically an essay where you write about the effects a disaster (they give u a few options to choose from) have on the people and the science behind it. This has a 1500 word (+/- 10%) limit. This assignment is marked fairly harshly though as I spent over 14 hours on this essay and barely got above an HD for the briefing paper.

Overall, this unit is run fairly well, and as long as you put in the effort into your assignments, getting a Distinction should be fairly easy. However, wouldn't call this a WAM booster as like a lot of Arts units, getting High Distinctions for essay-heavy units is pretty hard. However, I would still recommend this as a good elective.

Megan Farrelly

No as there was no exam. The briefing paper ''acted'' as the final exam even though it was basically another essay.

4 out of 5

Yes, with a screen capture

Environmental Hazards: Assessing Risk and Reducing Disaster
Keith Smith although this textbook wasn't too helpful

1- 2 Hours of Lectures per week and a 2 Hr Tutorial per Week

2021 Semester 1

81 HD

- 10% Short Essay (500 words, due week 3)
- 40% Major Essay (2000 words, due week 8 )
- 20% Practical exercises (due in at the end of each prac session)
- 30% Exam (2 hours, closed book)

I know this subject already has a review for it, but I thought it might be good to have a more updated review, since some of the information and assessments seem to have changed a bit.

As was stated in the previous review, this is simply geography, human and physical. For the majority of weeks in the semester, the first lecture was presented by a guest lecturer from the School of Earth, Atmosphere & Environment who explained the science behind a certain natural hazard (eg. flood, hurricanes, storms, drought, extreme heat). Then, the second lecture was presented by Megan (unit co-ordinator) who discussed the social science of what made the hazard a 'disaster' - things like why certain groups of people are more vulnerable than others, how people recover from disasters and how they adapt/protect themselves for the future.

Prac classes are a mixture of group and individual work. Usually, prac classes working alone will be using ArcGIS/ArcMap on the computer and using the software to answer written questions. When you do group work, you will usually have to do a small presentation at the end of the class showing what you have researched/learned. Pracs are generally easy marks, and you don't really have to be confident with the lecture material when you have your prac class, although being up to date is never a bad idea. (Also, you don’t play Pandemic anymore, as stated in the other review)

The short essay is about one specific natural disaster you choose to research (eg. Black Saturday, Hurricane Katrina). The major essay has 10 topics to choose from, so there should be something to suit everyone. It's 2000 words and worth 40% of the overall unit mark (more than the exam!), so it's best not to leave it to the last minute and be rushing with referencing or finding extra information. The exam was two hours and closed book. It was split into two parts: the first was short-answer questions; the second had 6 questions, of which you had to choose three to write a mini-essay. It was pretty similar to the past exams (which is a shame, because I believe they aren't being made available in coming years), however you just need to have some knowledge of the case studies used in lectures and know one or two really well to use in the essays.
Overall, a great unit. Not too demanding in terms of work load, you get to learn a lot of new information about different parts of the world from case studies and some areas (extreme heat events, climate change) are quite relevant to our world right now!

Dr Megan Farrelly and a number of guest lecturers from the School of EAE (Prof Nigel Tapper, A Prof David Dunkerley, Dr Vanessa Wong, Prof Michael Reeder)

Yes, two (2015 and 2016 exam) without answers, although from what I understand, there won't be any past exams made available next year

4.5 out of 5

Yes, with screen capture

Environmental Hazards: Assessing Risk & Reducing Disaster 6ed by K Smith - probably can get away without having it; most of the necessary diagrams from it are included in the lecture slides, although it goes into greater detail and has some extra information not presented in lectures about the social science

2x1hr lectures per week, 1x2hr practical for 9/12 weeks

2017, Semester 1

5% Bonus online quiz, 5% Short Essay (500 words), 40% Major Essay (2000 words), Practical class participation: 20% (2% per class, I believe. Unit Guide says a total of 25% up from Practicals, not too sure what it is), 30% Final examination (2 hours)

The course is pretty much just your basic Geography Subject, covers topics on Natural Hazards such as Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Floods, Bushfires and Storms as well as discussing factors that create vulnerabilities for humans. Technical terms are also covered throughout the course, something which to be honest, I realised when I walked into the exam and saw a question about 'biogeophysical factors.'

You will often find yourself wondering what the relevance is of the Practical class to the topic covered in the weeks lectures. I think second last week we played Pandemic in the Practical Class after which there were questions that you had to answer and hand back to be marked.

The head lecturer/chief examiner David Dunkerley is honestly the best. Some people may find him a drag, but if you like cute (relatively) old people, he's your guy. He makes funny little jokes and is a bit scared by technology but I enjoyed his lectures and how he went about explaining concepts.

Honestly, I would choose this subject if you wanted a bludge subject. There were a lot of 3rd year students in my Prac class who were just doing the uni so they could complete the amount of first year units needed to finish their degree. It can be entertaining at times, but possibly a bit of a drag at others though.

Oh and this unit falls under the Arts Faculty but has resources at both Matheson and Hargreave-Andrews Libraries because Geography falls sorta under both Arts and Science.

David Dunkerley mostly and various Guest Lecturers

No. Not that I am aware of.

4 of 5

Yes, with screen capture. I believe (which means Im not too sure, seeing I didnt check)

K Smith and DN Petley 2009. Environmental Hazards: assessing risk and reducing disaster. Routledge, 383pp

2 lectures and a 2-hour support class per week

Semester 1, 2012