Explore UCD

UCD Home >

HNUT40070

Academic Year 2025/2026

Nutrients in the Life Cycle (HNUT40070)

Subject:
Human Nutrition
College:
Health & Agricultural Sciences
School:
Agriculture & Food Science
Level:
4 (Masters)
Credits:
5
Module Coordinator:
Assoc Professor Aifric O'Sullivan
Trimester:
Spring
Mode of Delivery:
Online
Internship Module:
No
How will I be graded?
Letter grades

Curricular information is subject to change.

This module provides an overview of nutrition during each life stage, commencing in utero, and continuing throughout the life cycle. It will discuss the biology of development, growth, maturation and aging and its impact on nutrition requirements, how to assess diet and nutrition status and how nutritional requirements can be achieved in the context of each major life stage. This module will encourage the student to critically analyse the beneficial and adverse outcomes of various nutrient intakes and dietary patterns on the nutritional status and well-being of humans during the life cycle.

It is only available for students taking the ONLINE Graduate Certificate, Graduate Diploma or MSc in Food, Nutrition and Health.

About this Module

Learning Outcomes:

On successful completion of this module the student will be able to

• Understand critical nutritional factors that contribute to healthy growth, development and functional capacity throughout life.
• Describe the nutritional requirements of women before and during pregnancy and lactation, infants, children, adolescents, adults and older adults.
• Assess and evaluate nutritional status at different life stages.
• Critique and justify nutritional solutions targeted at different life stages to promote, improve or maintain health.



Student Effort Hours:
Student Effort Type Hours
Specified Learning Activities

25
Autonomous Student Learning

75
Lectures

25
Total

125

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
This module is an ONLINE module that is taught in 7 weeks, but has the same weighting as other modules. Therefore the workload will be double that of a typical module. The course content is broken into 6 topics based on life stages including; growth and nutrition assessment, pregnancy, the first year of life, childhood and adolescence, adulthood, and old age. Each topic is divided in 6 short lectures, ranging from 5 to 30 slides per lecture with audio voice over. In addition to the lectures there are “research highlights” which are journal papers related to the lecture topic. The research highlights are designed to increase your knowledge on a specific topics.

Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Not applicable to this module.


Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Pre-requisite:
FDSC40500 - Chemistry of Nutrients(O/L), HNUT40060 - Intro to Nutrition (O/L)

Co-requisite:
FDSC40530 - Principles of Biochemist (O/L)

Incompatibles:
DIET20010 - App Clin Nutrit for Healthcare, PHPS20030 - App Clin Nutrit for Healthcare


 

Assessment Strategy
Description Timing Component Scale Must Pass Component % of Final Grade In Module Component Repeat Offered
Assignment(Including Essay): Case Study Assignment Week 7 Standard conversion grade scale 40% No
70
 No
Quizzes/Short Exercises: 1. Online short question exam including multiple choice, true/false, and short answer questions. Week 2 Alternative linear conversion grade scale 40% No
10
 No
Quizzes/Short Exercises: 2. Online short question exam including multiple choice, true/false, and short answer questions. Week 4 Alternative linear conversion grade scale 40% No
10
 No
Quizzes/Short Exercises: 3. Online short question exam including multiple choice, true/false, and short answer questions. Week 6 Alternative linear conversion grade scale 40% No
10
 No

Carry forward of passed components
No
 

Resit In Terminal Exam
Autumn No
Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 

Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment
• Group/class feedback, post-assessment
• Online automated feedback
• Self-assessment activities

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Short question exams - students will receive online automated feedback on their grade post-assessment and can request indivdual feedback. Case study assignment - students will receive a marking rubric for self assessment while working on their case study assignments. Case study assignment - students will recieve group/class feedback, post-assessment on the case study assignment and can request individual feedback.

Name Role
Katherine Davies Tutor
Dr Fiona Lalor Tutor
Print this page
Fill in the following details:
Enter the body of your query here.

From time to time UCD would like to send you further information that we feel, based on your enquiry, would be of interest to you.