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Physical Geography
Graduate Certificate in ScienceInformal specialisationYear: 2024
Physical Geography
Overview
A specialisation in Physical Geography will provide students with skills and conceptual frameworks needed to understand the processes that shape the world around us. It brings many disciplines together to examine big picture issues, like climate change and inequality. In Physical Geography, particular attention is given to understanding the spatial and temporal scales of landscapes, their history and their biota, and the processes by which these vary.
Geography is a field-based discipline, enabling students to gain hands-on research experience via practical laboratory classes, field trips, and group project work, whilst also being provided opportunities to develop critical intellectual skills, transferable professional skills, a sense of public responsibility and higher research degree capacities.
Completion of the Graduate Certificate with a specialisation in Physical Geography will allow students to enter careers in the following areas: research institutions, teaching, environmental sciences, resource management and planning, environmental consultancies, industry and all levels of government.
The Graduate Certificate (Physical Geography specialisation) also provides a pathway into the Master of Geography.
Intended learning outcomes
Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:
- Demonstrate a sound understanding of the major disciplinary areas that comprise Physical Geography and a deep practical and theoretical understanding of at least one specialist area;
- Explain the natural processes that control the formation and maintenance of Earth's natural landscape systems and the impacts of humans on landforms and the biota they support;
- Utilise analytical skills appropriate to a range of field and laboratory techniques that enable graduates to address significant ecological and environmental problems at a range of scales from the cellular to the global;
- Demonstrate skills in the planning, safety and budget-setting for field-work, as well as more disciplinary-specific techniques such as sampling, mapping, remote sensing, and field classifications and identifications;
- Demonstrate the capacity to work and study in small groups and to communicate results verbally and by written assignments, including field diaries, laboratory reports and group presentations;
- Discern that while scientific techniques and knowledge are fundamental to investigating the natural world, the implementation of solutions to environmental problems requires an understanding of science within the context of current politics, planning and societal diversity.
Last updated: 2 May 2024
Structure
62.5 credit points
Completion of 62.5 points of study
- 50 points of study at level 3
- 12.5 points of study at level 9
Subject Options
Subject prerequisites: Details of stream specific requirements can be found at the Graduate Certificate in Science entry and participation requirements page.
Level 3
Students must select 50 points of level 3 subjects.
Students must select at least three of:
| Code | Name | Study period | Credit Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| GEOG30001 | Geomorphology: Catchment to Coast | Semester 1 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
| GEOG30007 | China Field Class | Not available in 2024 | 25 |
| GEOG30022 | Riverine Landscapes: Hydrology & Ecology | Not available in 2024 | 12.5 |
| GEOG30023 | Global Climate Change in Context | February (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
| GEOG30025 | Biogeography and Ecology of Fire | January (Off Campus) |
12.5 |
| GEOG30033 | Arid Australia Field Class | July (Off Campus) |
12.5 |
Plus no more than one of:
| Code | Name | Study period | Credit Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| GEOG30019 | Sustainable Development | Semester 1 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
| GEOG30021 | The Disaster Resilient City | Semester 2 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
| GEOG30024 | Africa: Environment, Development, People | Semester 2 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
| GEOG30026 | East Timor Field Class | Not available in 2024 | 12.5 |
| GEOG30027 | Local Sites, Global Connections | Semester 2 (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
| GEOG30030 | Spatial Modelling for Nature and People | November (On Campus - Parkville) |
12.5 |
Level 9
Plus 12.5 points of level 9 subjects selected from listed discipline subjects in the Master of Geography program.
Last updated: 2 May 2024