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Insects Shaping Society (UNIB10018)
Undergraduate level 1Points: 12.5On Campus (Parkville)
Overview
Availability | Semester 2 |
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Fees | Look up fees |
This breadth subject explores the interactions between insects and humans worldwide and through a multidisciplinary lens. Insects can be harnessed for food, medicine, and construction material. They can inspire architecture and design and have prominent roles in myth and songs and shape language. Insects have inspirated films, performances, music, and visual arts where artists aim to challenge our emotional and aesthetic connection to insects. Insects are both biologically and socially complex, from which important parallels to human biology and societal organisation can be drawn. Despite the importance of insects to humans, insects have been heavily impacted by human leading to enormous insect declines. In this subject, students from disciplines across the university can explore the impacts that insects have on humans and human society by learning from experts across many different fields through a combination of lectures and interactive, hands-on activities. This subject aims to broaden the students' scope in how we understand the multifaceted impacts that insects have on society.
Intended learning outcomes
On completion of this subject, students should be able to:
- Analyse the impact of agricultural practices on insects, including pollinators and insect pests
- Critically assess the way insects are used in, and influence literature, film, performance art, visual art, and architecture
- Contextualise the significance of insects throughout history and across geography
- Evaluate the impacts of humans on insect populations to explain dramatic loss in insect biodiversity around the world
Generic skills
- Develop an aptitude for continued self-directed learning and become adept at learning in a range of ways, including through information and communication technologies
- Critically synthesise and evaluate knowledge across disciplines and confront unfamiliar problems
- Engage in meaningful discourse and develop excellent interpersonal and decision-making skills
- Understand and value different cultures
Last updated: 25 September 2024