EAE1011: Earth, Atmosphere and Environment 1

- 30% Weekly lab classes (quizzes and written work)
- 10% Fieldwork (2 1/2 day fieldtrip on a weekend in March/April or a 1 day fieldtrip in May)
- 10% Major assignment (self-run group fieldtrip to the city)
- 50% Exam (2 hours, closed book)

This is the second year that EAE1011 had been offered as a subject. Supposedly, it combines elements from ESC1011 (keltingmeith's review), ESC1022, ATS1301 and MON1011, which aren't being run anymore.

This unit is a good introduction to the options that can be taken in second and third year. It touches on a number of topics, such as earth processes, cycles, minerals, rocks, our atmosphere, the solar system and the evolution/progress of life on Earth. There is a lot of information given in lectures, so be sure to pay extra attention to the review lectures, because the most important information is repeated in them.

Labs can be pretty fun. They usually run for 2-3 hours. Timetables have them scheduled for 3 hours, but in the 2017 handbook, it says they are 2 hours. Each one is somewhat related to the lecture content from the past few weeks. Often, there'll be actual rock/mineral/asteroid samples to look at, which is pretty awesome (especially the asteroids), and in one lab you go out into the rock garden to identify rocks. 3-4 of the labs are based solely on rocks and minerals, which I didn't really enjoy as I wasn't understanding the rock content in lectures. The demonstrators are all lovely and willing to help. Labs are assessed either by an online quiz based on questions answered during the lab, or by some kind of written work handed in then or one week later.

The fieldwork component was quite fun. You get a choice of two fieldtrips: either a weekend (Fri evening - Sun) trip to Rawson (near Moe), or a one day weekend trip to the You Yangs. I went on Rawson and had a great time. It gives you an idea of the kinds of work you may be doing in this field for a job, like recording weather observations, looking at rock outcrops and how they formed, and soil environments. The report you do is handed in before you leave, so you complete it all while you're there. With the You Yangs trip, you get about a week to finish your work and hand it in.

The major assignment is a group task (3-5 people) where you go into the city and answer questions about different environments. Easter was in the middle of April in 2017, so this assignment was handed out at a great time, because there was time to do it during the mid-semester break. There are heaps of questions, so towards the end my group was getting tired and just wanting to finish. It was cool to learn some new things about Melbourne, but just doing all the questions out there got frustrating as the day went on.

The exam is 2 hours, closed book and made up of multiple choice and short answer questions. It was frustrating to not have any full practice exams and answers for the exam, however the subject is quite new. Not too bad, just difficult to study for due to the huge amount of content learnt throughout the semester. Overall, a pretty good unit.

Marion Anderson and a couple of guest lecturers from the School of EAE

No past or sample exams. About 30 practice multiple-choice questions online with no answers.

3.5 out of 5

Yes, with screen capture

No textbook required for this subject!

3x1hr lectures per week, 1x3hr lab per week (most times it finished 30mins-1hr early)

2017, Semester 1