EAE1022: Earth, Atmosphere and Environment 2

I found this unit to be quite enjoyable and well organized. If you have done EAE1011, this unit is very chill as it is essentially a repeat of EAE1011 with a bit of new content added. This did mean at times it felt a little bit repetitive and boring. I found the Geology and Soil Science content to be the most interesting and Atmospheric and Dendrocrinology to be the least exciting although that may just be my personal experience. I found Marion and all the assessments to be organized very well and everything was very clear and laid out in the rubric and what she wants.

In regards to the 5% poster, this was the one assignment where I did pretty awful due to cramming it on the day it was due so please make sure to spend at least a good few days working on it. The weekly quizzes and practical quizzes are fairly easy as long as you watch the lectures, take some notes down, and also attend the weekly practical classes. Marion runs help sessions each day so if you have any lingering questions from the prac worksheet for example, then highly recommend dropping to one of these help sessions. The infographic assignment was good as you can choose to work in groups or individually. I personally worked in a group with my friends and found that was quite a bit easier. The field trip report was altered due to COVID lockdown however if you spend a decent amount of time and follow the rubric, there's no reason why you can't score near the perfect score or get a perfect score. Overall, I did find this unit to be rather chill and I would recommend it as a good WAM booster. [/list]

Marion Anderson and too many others to name from the School of EAE

No as there is no final exam

4.5 out of 5

Yes, uploaded onto Moodle

No textbook required

3x1 Hr Lectures per week and a 2 Hr Practical Session

2021, Semester 2

87 HD

30% Lab classes
Lab classes were run similarly to last semester, running for 2-3 hours. They usually involved using a laptop and online software to answer questions and find information. This was usually assessed by handing in the sheets with your answered questions or writing up a short report/introduction on what you did in the class to hand in during next week's lab. There was only one online quiz (very different to last semester), so in a sense there was more work to do, as instead of spending 10 minutes on a quiz, you spend an hour or so writing up an introduction.

10% Self-run field trip (1000 word report due in week 11)
In this field trip, you go to Elwood with a group of people and walk around the beach, near the canal and some residential streets, listening to a podcast created by some of the lecturers. You are essentially gaining field observations to prepare a 1000 word report about the impacts of sea-level rise on low-lying coastal suburbs (such as Elwood). Nothing you write down during the field trip is actually assessed, which is frustrating given that it takes 3-4 hours, but you need to have some observations that you include in the report (things that can't be cited). In the report, you find sources to cite that suggest a mitigation/adaptation strategy that could work for Elwood and how practical it would be.

10% Major assignment (group poster project due in week 12)
This assignment involved preparing a PowerPoint poster to be put up on a projector in the lab rooms. Your group is given a random topic, and some are definitely more complex than others (eg. my group had a topic about changes in extreme temperatures during the future (relatively simple, easy to find information on) while another group on our lab table had a topic about vicariance patterns over geologic time periods (what)). As long as your group can work together and share knowledge, you will be fine. Just remember to read what your other group members add to the poster (if you divide the work up) because when you present, demonstrators can ask anyone about anything on the poster.

50% Exam
Similar format to the EAE1011 exam, with multiple-choice and short-answer questions, however there were less multiple-choice and more short-answer questions. It was two hours and closed book. I felt as though it was of similar difficulty to EAE1011.

I enjoyed EAE1022 much more than EAE1011, partly because I began to get the hang of how uni life/studying worked, and also because I preferred the information we learnt this semester. The subject started with a focus on some natural disasters (fire, water hazards, storms, extreme heat, geohazards) much like ATS1310. Then it moved on to resources, pollution, water/food security, soil, biogeography, climate change, sustainability and adaptation/mitigation. I enjoyed the focus on how humans affect the environment and how we can change our behaviour/design new technology to mitigate/adapt to these dangers (this was also talked about in ATS1310, which is great if you did that subject!).

The non-compulsory seminar was essentially a presentation every week from someone in the industry or an academic. These included some of our lecturers who talked about their journey from student to academic, people who work for companies and how they got there, people who recently moved from working to study, and students talking about their experiences on study tours. If you're able to make it, there were some great tips and ideas from the people who spoke about how to stand out as an academic, how to get into the industry etc. As they weren't compulsory, attendance was very low and decreased each week. There was a calendar on moodle about who was speaking when, which helped me to work out which seminars I thought were worth attending/which ones pertained to me.

There was quite a lot of content in this subject as there are so many sub-topics in the lectures. This can make studying difficult as there's a lot to learn and you might not enjoy every topic that was covered. However, EAE1022 is a pre-requisite for a number of second-year subjects so it makes sense that the content is broad and covers a lot of areas.
Overall, an enjoyable unit!

Ms. Marion Anderson, Dr. Vanessa Wong, Dr. Hamish Ramsay, Dr. Julie Boyce, Dr. Leslie Almberg, Dr. Ruth Reef, Dr. James Driscoll

No past exam. 30 sample multiple-choice and 10 sample short-answer questions put on moodle with no answers.

4 out of 5

Yes, with screen capture

No textbook required

3x1hr lectures, 1x3hr lab/practical, 1x1hr non-compulsory seminar

2017, Semester 2