Earth, Climate and Life
UndergraduateTAS-KGA2042025
Course information for 2025 intake View information for 2024 course intake
- Study method
- 100% online
- Assessments
- 100% online
- Enrol by
- 16 Feb 2025
- Entry requirements
- Prior study needed
- Duration
- 14 weeks
- Price from
- $2,726
- Upfront cost
- $0
- Loan available
- HECS-HELP and FEE-HELP available
Earth, Climate and Life
About this subject
Upon successful completion of this subject, the student should be able to:
- Explain key concepts in physical geography and apply them to distinctive natural places.
- Apply physical geography approaches and methodologies to a range of environmental settings.
- Explain the relationships between earth, climate and life systems.
- Communicate with discipline-specific terminology and approaches to a range of audiences.
- Week 1 - Introduction to Earth, Climate and Life
- Week 2 - Geomorphic change
- Week 3 - Landforms and soils
- Week 4 - Atmospheric structure, Energy
- Week 5 - Horizontal motion, global circulation, vorticity
- Week 6 - Weather - clouds, humidity, precipitation
- Week 7 - Water, drought and fire, microclimates
- Week 8 - Climate and geomorphological influences on biota
- Week 9 - Mountain biogeomorphology
- Week 10 - Nutrient cycles
- Week 11 - Rarity
- Week 12 - Anthropogenic disturbance
- Week 13 - Revision
The physical and living aspects of the global environment interact to produce the extraordinary variety of landscapes, ecosystems and species that occupy this planet. This subject highlights the interplay and conservation of controlling processes so that they continue to maintain Earth's ecosystems and inspire future generations. Earth, Climate and Life develops intermediate understanding of factors controlling geomorphological distinctiveness of earth surface features, weather and climate processes from global to local scales, and distributions and habitats of plants and animals and how they interact within ecosystems. These topics are integrated across various time and spatial scales, emphasising distinctive biomes including island places, and will help students understand reasons for variety in the attributes of landforms and plant and animal species. The subject prepares students for several third year subjects in physical geography, and develops key skills in demand among employers, including analysis of multiple factors that may be in operation, and presentation of convincing reports.
- Workshops (20%)
- Project Report (30%)
- Project Plan (10%)
- Online Test - Open book take-home examination (40%)
For textbook details check your university's handbook, website or learning management system (LMS).
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- 20
- Times Higher Education Ranking 2024:
- 19
Entry requirements
Prior study
You must either have successfully completed the following subject(s) before starting this subject, or currently be enrolled in the following subject(s) in a prior study period; or enrol in the following subject(s) to study prior to this subject:
one of
Please note that your enrolment in this subject is conditional on successful completion of these prerequisite subject(s). If you study the prerequisite subject(s) in the study period immediately prior to studying this subject, your result for the prerequisite subject(s) will not be finalised prior to the close of enrolment. In this situation, should you not complete your prerequisite subject(s) successfully you should not continue with your enrolment in this subject. If you are currently enrolled in the prerequisite subject(s) and believe you may not complete these all successfully, it is your responsibility to reschedule your study of this subject to give you time to re-attempt the prerequisite subject(s).
Others
Conditional Pre-requisite: TAS-KGA171 OR TAS-KGA172 OR 25 credit points at Introductory level or higher from environmental science, earth science, climate science or ecology.
Additional requirements
No additional requirements
Study load
- 0.125 EFTSL
- This is in the range of 10 to 12 hours of study each week.
Equivalent full time study load (EFTSL) is one way to calculate your study load. One (1.0) EFTSL is equivalent to a full-time study load for one year.
Find out more information on Commonwealth Loans to understand what this means to your eligibility for financial support.
What to study next?
Once you’ve completed this subject it can be credited towards one of the following courses
Bachelor of Science (Geography and Environment)
UndergraduateTAS-SCG-DEG
Bachelor of Science (Sustainability)
UndergraduateTAS-SUS-DEG
Bachelor of Psychological Science and Bachelor of Science
UndergraduateTAS-PSC-DEG
Bachelor of Business and Bachelor of Science
UndergraduateTAS-BBS-DEG
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