BIOD123 - Cells and Tissues - The Fabric of Life

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

Nil

Incompatible

BIOL123 Cells and Tissues - the Fabric of Life

Unit rationale, description and aim

Biomedical science is a vast discipline with the united aim of understanding the human body so that we can look after it, and therefore also includes areas such as pharmacology, pathophysiology, and biochemistry. To do this it is vital that the modern biomedical scientist develops a strong foundation in cellular biology. As the smallest unit of life, the cell underpins all functions of concern with the body. This unit aims to begin the development of a strong cell biology foundation by exploring the structure and function of cells, including how structure relates to function. In doing so they will consider how cells can combine and work together to form tissues, allowing for more complex processes to occur within the human body. This unit also focuses on developing students’ core scientific skills, including laboratory (e.g. micropipetting & microscopy) and communication skills.

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

Content

Topics will include:

• Structure and function of cells
• Specialisation of cells
• Relationship between cells and tissues
• The scientific process
• Foundational biomedical laboratory skills (e.g. microscopy and micropipetting)
• Scientific communication

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

This is a specified unit in the Diploma in Biomedical Science. Online recorded lectures provide asynchronous content delivery, while on-campus classes provide opportunities for skills acquisition and application. This unit has a strong focus on core biomedical laboratory knowledge and skills, which are crucial for later units within the program, and future employment in the field. Inquiry- and problem-based in-class activities encourage students to engage with the scientific process, developing critical thinking and autonomous learning skills.

Further to this, to ensure students are ready to transition from the Diploma and articulate into the second year of undergraduate study, transition pedagogies will be incorporated into the unit as the key point of differentiation from the standard unit. This focuses on an active and engaging approach to learning and teaching practices, and a scaffolded approach to the delivery of curriculum to enhance student learning in a supportive environment. This will ensure that students develop foundation level discipline-based knowledge, skills and attributes, and simultaneously the academic competencies required of students to succeed in this unit.

Assessment strategy and rationale

A range of assessment procedures will be used to confirm that the unit learning outcomes have been attained and all graduate attributes.

Theory tests will assess student mastery of discipline knowledge covered in the unit. A communication task will allow students to demonstrate critical thinking and their ability to communicate scientific processes and results to a literate audience. The practical assessment provides students an opportunity to demonstrate competency in foundational biomedical laboratory procedures and techniques. These procedures and techniques represent essential knowledge and skills for all biomedical scientists. Students will be given 3 attempts to successfully complete the practical assessment.

In order to pass this unit, students must demonstrate achievement of every unit learning outcome. The practical assessment is the only task to assess learning outcome 3, and therefore, students must achieve a passing mark for this assessment, as well as 50% overall for the unit in order to pass.

Strategies aligned with transition pedagogies will be utilised to facilitate successful completion of the unit assessment tasks. For each assessment, there will be the incorporation of developmentally staged tasks with a focus on a progressive approach to learning. This will be achieved through activities, including regular feedback, particularly early in the unit of study to support their learning; strategies to develop and understand discipline-specific concepts and terminology; in-class practice tasks with integrated feedback; and greater peer-to-peer collaboration. 

Overview of assessments

Representative texts and references

Alberts, B., Bray, D., Hopkin, K., Johnson, A., Lewis, J., Raff, M., Roberts, K., & Walter, P. (2019). Essential cell biology (5th ed.). W. W. Norton & Company.

Ovalle, W. K., Nahirney, P. C., Netter, F. H., & Chovan, J. (2021). Netter’s essential histology with correlated histopathology (3rd ed.). Elsevier.

Tortora, G. J., Derrickson, B., Burkett, B., Peoples, G., Dye, D., Cooke, J., Diversi, T., McKean, M., Samalia, L., & Mellifont, R. (2019). Principles of Anatomy & Physiology (2nd Asia-Pacific ed.). Wiley. 

Urry, L. A., Meyers, N., Cain, M. L., Wasserman, S. A., Minorsky, P. V., Reece, J. B., & Campbell, N. A. (2018). Campbell Biology (11th ed. Australian and New Zealand version.). Pearson Education Australia.