BIOL124 - Human Body in Health and Disease 1

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

BIOL123 Cells and Tissues - the Fabric of Life

Incompatible

BIOL121 Human Biological Science 1 , BIOL122 Human Biological Science 2 , BIOL125 Human Biology 1 ,BIOL126 Human Biology 2 , BIOL128 The Human Body

Unit rationale, description and aim

The purpose of this unit is to introduce students to the structure, function and dysfunction of the nervous, musculoskeletal, cardiovascular and respiratory systems, and briefly explain epidemiological principles. The integrated actions of the body systems in maintaining a constant internal environment (homeostasis) will be explored. Students will investigate the aetiology of diseases in the selected systems, showing the role of cellular and biochemical dysfunction in pathophysiology. Epidemiology of the selected diseases will be discussed with an Indigenous and international focus. This unit builds on the earlier biology units of The Human Body and Cells and Tissues: The Fabric of Life, and provides a foundation for Human Body in Health and Disease 2 and studies in Pharmacology. This unit aims to enable comparison of normal structure and function of the human body with changes in cellular, tissue, organ, systemic and whole body levels in diseases affecting the selected systems, which is essential for both biomedical and nutritional sciences.

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.

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

use anatomical, directional biomedical and epidemiological terminology appropriately; (GA5, GA9)

explain the relationship between the gross and micro-anatomical structure and physiological function of the body systems; (GA4, GA5)

apply the concept of homeostasis to physiological and selected pathophysiological processes at the cellular, tissue, systemic and organismic levels, and explain the effect of nutrition, over-consumption and age-associated changes in structure and function of various body systems (GA4, GA5, GA8)

communicate evaluation of biomedical research in team contexts, both in writing and orally (GA7, GA8, GA9)

Graduate attributes

GA4 - think critically and reflectively 

GA5 - demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession 

GA7 - work both autonomously and collaboratively 

GA8 - locate, organise, analyse, synthesise and evaluate information 

GA9 - demonstrate effective communication in oral and written English language and visual media 

Assessment strategy and rationale

A range of assessment procedures will be used to meet the unit learning outcomes and develop graduate attributes consistent with University assessment requirements. In order to successfully complete the unit, students must obtain an aggregate score of equal to or greater than 50% for the three submitted graded assessment tasks. 

Students reach their learning objectives in a stepwise fashion. The weekly formative quizzes are used to promote active learning and student engagement providing timely feedback on progress for individual students. 

The first quiz assessment task is online and assesses content from early in the semester. This assessment task provides immediate feedback, so students can gauge their progress and seek support if needed. The second quiz has a higher weighting and is a mix of multiple-choice and short-answer questions assessing the content and concepts taught in the rest of the semester.

Overview of assessments