Associate Professor Yan Tan
Program Director, Hugo Population and Migration Studies, Stretton Institute
Program Director, Master of Environmental Policy and Management
Department of Geography, Environment and Population
Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Economics
The University of Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia

P: (61) 08 8313 3976
E: yan.tan@adelaide.edu.au
W: https://researchers.adelaide.edu.au/profile/yan.tan

This course will be run as a block activity and supplemented by independent learning and field work

1.     Demonstrate understanding of key geographical and environmental issues;

2.     Demonstrate the capacity to apply and develop solutions to issues;

3.     Demonstrate competence in at least one of population, cultural, urban or environmental geography fields;

4.     Demonstrate the capacity to construct and communicate different approaches for geographical and environmental issues across different scales and different social and cultural contexts;

5.     Demonstrate the capacity to apply a range of geography skills to particular real-world problems.

·        There is no set text for this course as there is no one textbook that deals with multi-dimensional geographical and environmental
issues in the field of geography and environmental studies.

·        Students will be provided with a comprehensive list of readings, which include a suite of peer-reviewed articles and technical
materials (i.e. policies and environmental management strategies) on the subject. Suggested readings will be made available through MyUni for students’ easy access in due course.

·        All other required materials (e.g. workshop slides, assessment information, web links) are also provided on MyUni.

To be advised

MyUni/Canvas

MyUni/Canvas is a critical learning tool and means of communication and knowledge exchange in this course. Learning materials are available each week in preparation for our workshop. Other course material (e.g. readings, assessment information) and many features of MyUni/Canvas (e.g. announcements and the discussion board) will help students to organise and manage their study.

Students need to regularly check the MyUni/Canvas website and use MyUni/Canvas for the different assignments (for information and submission).

To reach the MyUni website for the course follow the links from the University of Adelaide's Homepage http://www.adelaide.edu.au or go straight to https://myuni.adelaide.edu.au/. You will need to enter your username and password to enter the MyUni website. If you have difficulty accessing MyUni contact the Help Desk at 830 33335 or send an e-mail to myuni.help@adelaide.edu.au (See http://www.adelaide.edu.au/myuni; http://www.adelaide.edu.au/its/help/contact_details/).

The course comprises weekly three-hour workshops, with a short (one-hour) in-class introductory lecture, in-class research sessions (or activities), and concluding remarks. The teaching in this course is based on student-centred learning principles and strategies. Students are seen as partners in the learning journey. The course employs a blended approach to teaching and learning: Small-Group Discovery workshops via face-to-face interactions in class are supplemented by effective use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and the online teaching and learning environment of MyUni. Students have reading material and some learning activities on MyUni which need to be done before the workshops so that the workshops can be interactive and participatory. Interactive and collaborative teaching and learning thus take place inside and outside the classroom. Students learn critical thinking and problem-solving skills and work collaboratively in workshops. Please make any arrangements you need with work, family etc. so that you can attend all compulsory workshops. Please email the Course Coordinator (yan.tan@adelaide.edu.au) if there are any issues with compulsory attendance so that alternative learning arrangements could be made.

University policies suggest for a 6-unit course that there should be a minimum workload of 312 hours of learning activities in the semester. Students are expected to undertake 3 hours of face to face a week. This is a 6 unit capstone course so students will be expected to do a higher load in terms of assessment and preparatory work.

WORKLOAD – STRUCTURED LEARNING
1 x 3 hours workshop per week (12 weeks): 36 hours
1 x 8 hours field trip: 8 hours

WORKLOAD – SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING
10 hours of reading and preparation per week: 120 hours
6.5 hours of research per week: 78 hours
6 hours of preparation for assignments per week: 72 hours

TOTAL = 314 hours in semester 2

Key topics to discuss:

• Course Introduction; Addressing Climate Change and Health
• Place and Knowledge
• Place and management in the lower lakes of the River Murray
• Agri-environment: Policies and Practice
• Students’ Poster Presentation
• Housing: Quality and Inequality
• Problems of federated coastal management in Australia
• Preparing the Field Trip to the Fleurieu Peninsula Region of South Australia
• Field Trip to the Fleurieu Peninsula Region of South Australia
• Our Adelaide, Our Future
• How and where should Greater Adelaide grow?
• Collective Urban Gardening
• Population Change in Australia in the COVID Era; Future research directions; 2025 GEP Honours information

This is a capstone course for those majoring in Geography: The field trip will ensure students interrogate geographical concepts in real life situations

ASSESSMENT 

1. Research Essay (2,000 words): 35%

2. Field Trip Report (2,000 words): 35%

3. Poster Presentation: 15%

4. Critical Reflective Journal from the Workshops (at least entries from 6 workshops (1,000 words)): 15%

To pass this course you must attend all workshops, complete and submit all assessments as described in this course profile. The field trip will be undertaken and students are expected to be able to attend.

1. Poster Presentation

This assessment seeks to critically examine individual understandings of the interactions between ‘Policy’ and ‘Place’ when they relate to real-world environmental or geographical challenges. The poster presentation is the chance to showcase the critical thinking and analytical capability of key environmental or geographical issues and demonstrate the highest standard of ‘public’ communication in an oral presentation.

Students should choose a topic relevant to this course. Consult with the course teaching staff.

2. Research Essay

The Research Essay provides opportunities for students to develop and demonstrate research, analytical, critical thinking, and written communication skills, which employers highly value. Students are required to choose one topic from a pool of essay topics (or questions) set by the experts teaching in this course and write a paper that critically analyses their chosen topic, using peer-reviewed literature and case studies. Students are provided opportunities to discuss relevant topics (or questions) suggested by corresponding teaching staff during the workshop session each week. The research essay should include a literature review section. To conduct a useful literature review, students are expected to reference at least 10 literature sources (e.g. refereed journal articles, books, and book chapters). The suggested reading materials for each week can be used as a starting point, but students need to utilise resources beyond these. Marking will emphasise the quality of the argument more than quantity. The referencing system that students should use is Harvard (the author-date in-text matched with the bibliography).

3. Reflective Workshop Journal: at least 6 entries from the workshops in Weeks 1–11

Workshop attendance is a compulsory component of the course. Workshops are the forum where we discuss the subject matter and have small group work exercises to consolidate knowledge and develop skills. Students are highly encouraged to attend ALL scheduled workshops. All students are expected to be well prepared for each workshop and actively participate in discussing the critical questions raised by relevant teaching staff and each week’s readings. It would be best to write a timely entry into your electronic Reflective Workshop Journal each week (approx. 150 words).

4. Final Report

The ability to communicate ideas in writing is an essential part of working life for most university graduates. This assignment develops and assesses students’ written communication skills in applying foundational concepts and approaches in environmental and geographical studies to real-world population and environmental policy and management issues at a regional (or community) scale. The steps involved in writing a report based on a one-day field trip to the Fleurieu Peninsula region require students to collect and analyse data and information, interact actively with stakeholders and experts, identify and critically engage with other people’s ideas, present key findings, draw out implications from the findings of direct field observations, short (informal) interviews, and data analysis, generate informed arguments, and convey the arguments in a clear, systematic, and rigorous manner. The fieldwork will be completed during the mid-semester break. The final report, built on existing literature, draws together a range of new information/data that students will collect from the field trip, knowledge, skills, and attributes that they have obtained and developed in their study. It should reflect the best efforts of students and be the most satisfying accomplishment.

Students must submit electronically via MyUni/Canvas. To check for plagiarism, we use TURNITIN. The last possible time for submission is midnight (11:59 pm) on the due date.