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National Marine Science Centre Coffs Harbour

Unit description

Provides students with information about highly topical developments in physical and chemical oceanography. It will provide a primary mechanism for informing students about critical developments within this field, especially capturing specialized topics that are not dealt with in detail in other units within the award. Each topic will be delivered by staff members with expertise and current projects in the nominated research field. 

Unit content

Five topics will be covered in each year, and will be drawn from the following:

  • Palaeo-environmental change
  • Chemical properties of seawater, such as salinity, temperature and pH, nutrient dynamics
  • Interactions between the ocean and atmosphere
  • Large-scale dynamics (e.g. ocean currents, eddy effect)
  • Small-scale turbulence (e.g. internal waves, micro-scale effects)
  • Air-sea interaction
  • Carbon cycling and biogeochemistry (including Climate Change and Ocean acidification)
  • Remote sensing of the ocean
  • Ocean-ice interactions
  • Sea level over time

Learning outcomes

Unit Learning Outcomes express learning achievement in terms of what a student should know, understand and be able to do on completion of a unit. These outcomes are aligned with the graduate attributes. The unit learning outcomes and graduate attributes are also the basis of evaluating prior learning.

On completion of this unit, students should be able to:
1demonstrate an advanced understanding of highly topical issues in oceanography
2apply knowledge of contemporary oceanographic issues in laboratory and/or field settings
3critically evaluate a range of research methodologies for answering key scientific questions
4synthesize information and present this as a professional report.

On completion of this unit, students should be able to:

  1. demonstrate an advanced understanding of highly topical issues in oceanography
  2. apply knowledge of contemporary oceanographic issues in laboratory and/or field settings
  3. critically evaluate a range of research methodologies for answering key scientific questions
  4. synthesize information and present this as a professional report.

Prescribed Learning Resources

Prescribed Texts
  • No prescribed texts.
Prescribed Resources/Equipment
  • No prescribed resources/equipment.
Prescribed Learning Resources may change in future Teaching Periods

Teaching and assessment

Teaching method
Workshop 1 hour (Weekly)
Tutorial 2 hours (Weekly)
Assessment
Quiz20%
Quiz30%
Report50%
Notice

Intensive offerings may or may not be scheduled in every teaching period. Please refer to the timetable for further details.

Southern Cross University employs different teaching methods within units to provide students with the flexibility to choose the mode of learning that best suits them. SCU academics strive to use the latest approaches and, as a result, the learning modes and materials may change. The most current information regarding a unit will be provided to enrolled students at the beginning of the teaching period.

Fee information

Domestic

Commonwealth Supported courses
For information regarding Student Contribution Amounts please visit the Student Contribution Amounts.

Fee paying courses
For postgraduate or undergraduate full fee paying courses please check Domestic Postgraduate Fees OR Domestic Undergraduate Fees

International

Please check the international course and fee list to determine the relevant fees.

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