UNIB10009: Food for a Healthy Planet

25% MST based on weeks 1-4, 25% Forum report, 50% exam.

Overall I'm pretty happy that I took this breadth, it was relatively easy whilst being interesting at the time. At the end of the subject, I definitely felt that I learnt something from this subject, the content we learnt from the nutrition and obesity lectures were applicable to real life as well, which is always good to pique you're interest in the subject. We covered everything from food trends, climate change, nutrition, obesity, famines, how agriculture can pull people out of poverty, the city's food bowl and allergies. Even though it is more geared towards the style of a agriculture/science subject (ignoring the 3 lectures on economics), the content was at a basic level, so it is quite accessible to students from other disciplines too. That being said, I wouldn't call this a subject a total 'bludge' since all the content from the lectures, 10 tutorials and weekly readings is examinable (though the tutes kind of direct you to what you need to take away from the readings). However, the level of effort required to do well in this subject is definitely less than the level required for your other core subjects for sure.

Assessments:
The MST held in Week 5 was based on the first 4 weeks of class and was fair, with the MCQs being quite easy and straightforward, sometimes you could just answer them based off logic. However, the written questions are a little time-consuming, so make sure you keep an eye on the time when doing the MST. Same goes for the exam.
The Forum Report was a 1000-word written piece based on the lecture from one guest lecturer (which they ended up calling a 'forum'), people did pretty well, the average was 75%. There was no need for citations because it was a succinct summary of the forum.
The exam was 2 hours with 15 mins reading time, and consisted of MCQs, short answer questions (you answer 5 out of the 7 they give you, which is great because you can steer your focus to particular topics you're stronger in) based on the lectures, and 1 out of 2 questions based on the other 2 forums you have. You also get to bring in a double-sided A4 cheat sheet, which really helps if you haven't really had the time to properly study for it. Would recommend this subject because of its light workload and for being interesting overall, requiring a little effort but not to the level that it compromises your other subjects.

Yes, with screen capture.

so many haha, there is a new lecturer pretty much every week: Mohan Singh, Snow Barlow, Julia Steenkamp, Neil Mann, Anneline Padayachee, Bill Malcolm, Sengeetha Chandra-Shekeran, Rachel Carey, Paul Knight, Ingrid Appelqvist.

Yes, around 5 past exams for Section B but not sections A (MCQ) or C (forum qs). Also 5 past MST papers.

5 out of 5

None, readings are supplied from the LMS, you can also purchase a printed version of it from the Co-op.

2x 1hour lectures and one tute per week (note that tute attendance is a hurdle requirement, you need to attend a minimum of 8/10 tutes to pass)

Semester 1, 2018.

H1

I chose this subject because I genuinely thought I would be interested in the content, but there were only few moments where I was actually interested while the majority of the time I was completely bored.

The subject covered a broad range of topics that mainly focused on solutions needed to feed the world in the future and climate change affecting food security. Other minor topics included GM food, nutritional strategies for athletics, obesity, famine, economics of food security, environmental effects of agriculture, etc. There were many different lectures for all the little topics so the subject content felt slightly disjointed. I was interested in the nutritional side but that was poorly taught and only a minor aspect of the subject. If you’re like me, be prepared to put up with a lot of other stuff.

The lecturers for this subject were terrible. Most of them were so monotonous and hard to hear. Some concepts were not explained probably. In hindsight, watching the lectures on Lectopia would probably be better in most cases just so you can hear them properly.

The only exceptions were the forums with reasonably good speakers and interesting content. These forums were not recorded and a forum report was expected a week later but 500 words was pretty quick to do. Make sure you cover all of the main aspects of the report or be prepared to lose marks.

You have a timeframe of about 2 months from when the essay questions are released. Try to start early to give yourself time to do wider reading, which will significantly improve your mark. Also, do yourself a favour and learn how to use EndNote; it makes referencing less of a hassle.

The mid-semester test uses recycled past questions so make sure you do them and know the answer to each one. Same goes for the exam. For the exam, you can take in one double-sided summary sheet of any font which takes out huge portion of rote learning.

In the end, this subject was pretty easy and not that time-consuming to complete and study for with the exception of the research essay.

Yes, with screen capture. Forums are not recorded.

Mohan Singh, Richard Roush, Frank Dunshea, Snow Barlow, Mark Hargreaves, Bill Malcolm. Forum speakers were Peter Gresshoff, Jennie Brand-Miller and Kerin O’Dea. Nanette Esparon takes all tutorials.

Past exams available to 2008. No solutions are provided. Past mid-semester tests also available.

3.5/5

No textbook is required but there is a student reader available for purchase from the bookshop. Not completely essential in my opinion because most of the tutorial readings from the reader is also put on LMS, although not all of them. The reader has extra material that may help you with your research essay but I suppose you could survive without it if you want to save ~$30.

2 x 1 hour lecture per week, 1 x 1 hour tutorial per week. There is a 75% minimum attendance for tutorials so attendance is taken.

2012, Semester 1

H1 (91)