Unit rationale, description and aim
Sports nutrition links food with physical performance. It refers to the nutritional needs of all active people, including athletes. Nutrition provides the fuel for exercise and the essential elements for growth, maintenance and repair of the body’s tissues. In sporting contexts, athletes and coaches recognise that sound nutrition is critical to sporting success, with the composition, amount and timing of food intake profoundly affecting performance. This unit will address both the scientific and applied aspects of nutrition for sports performance by examining the nutritional guidelines proposed to optimise exercise performance and the principles underpinning these recommendations. The aim of the unit is to provide the knowledge, understanding and skills for critically evaluating nutritional practices for sports performance and for communicating and delivering general nutritional advice to athletes, within appropriate scope of practice and referral pathways, consistent with the professional standards for Exercise Scientists.
Campus offering
No unit offerings are currently available for this unit.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.
Appraise the role of nutritional factors and envir...
Learning Outcome 01
Assess the nutritional demands of athletic perform...
Learning Outcome 02
Critique the scientific evidence supporting advoca...
Learning Outcome 03
Provide nutritional advice within scope of practic...
Learning Outcome 04
Content
Topics will include:
- The role of the dietitian and sports nutrition in supporting performance
- The training and competition diet
- Eating to optimize recovery
- Training-nutrient interactions: effects on cell metabolism and performance
- Supplements and sports food
- Nutrition, body composition and physique
Assessment strategy and rationale
In order to best enable students to achieve unit learning outcomes and develop graduate attributes, standards-based assessment is utilised, consistent with University assessment requirements. A range of assessment strategies are used including: a quiz to assess student learning of unit content, a written task to assess student’s ability to critically appraise relevant scientific literature and a case study written task to assess evidence-based decision making and the application of accumulated learning through the unit.
Overview of assessments
To successfully pass the unit, students must demonstrate achievement of all learning outcomes and achieve a minimum overall mark of 50% in the graded assessments.
Assessment Task 1: Quiz Assesses comprehension o...
Assessment Task 1: Quiz
Assesses comprehension of the unit’s delivered material.
20%
Assessment Task 1: Written Assessment Assesses a...
Assessment Task 1: Written Assessment
Assesses ability to critically interrogate scientific literature underpinning contemporary evidence-based practice.
40%
Assessment Task 3 : Written Assessment Assesses...
Assessment Task 3 : Written Assessment
Assesses critical thinking skills and evidence-based decision making in applying their knowledge and skills developed during the unit.
40%
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
Learning and teaching methods include active learning, asynchronous learning, case-based learning, and reflective/critical thinking activities, delivered online.. This range of methods will provide students with appropriate access to required knowledge and understanding of unit content. These methods will allow students to meet the aim, learning outcomes and graduate attributes of the unit, as well as professional practice standards. The learning and teaching strategy will reflect respect for the individual as an independent learner. Students will be expected to take responsibility for their learning and to participate actively within group activities.