← Outdoor Education syllabus

SAOutdoor Education

Assessment Type 3: Connections with Natural Environments

5 dot points across 5 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How do people form relationships with natural environments, and how does deepening that connection shape attitudes and actions?

Examine and evaluate how human relationships with and connections to natural environments develop, including First Nations connection to Country.
How humans form relationships with natural environments, covering connection to place, sense of place, First Nations connection to Country, environmental attitudes and worldviews, and the link between connection and pro-environmental action.
6 min answer →

How do outdoor experiences in natural environments contribute to personal and social growth and wellbeing?

Reflect on and evaluate how experiences in natural environments contributed to your personal and social development and wellbeing.
How outdoor experiences foster personal and social development and wellbeing, covering challenge and the comfort zone, resilience, self-efficacy, teamwork and communication, and how to reflect on growth for the external assessment.
6 min answer →

How do you reflect on and evaluate your own development through outdoor experiences in a way that is honest, evidenced and insightful?

Use reflective practice to evaluate your personal development across outdoor experiences, drawing on specific evidence from your journeys.
How to use reflective practice to evaluate personal development, covering reflection models, the difference between describing and reflecting, using journal and journey evidence, self and peer assessment, and writing insightful evaluation for the external Connections task.
6 min answer →

How does a deepening sense of place turn into stewardship, and what responsibility do outdoor users hold for the environments they value?

Evaluate how a sense of place develops into environmental stewardship and explain the responsibilities outdoor users hold toward natural environments.
How a deepening sense of place becomes environmental stewardship, covering the meaning of stewardship, the link from connection to responsibility and action, the obligations of outdoor users, advocacy and the role of First Nations custodianship as a model of care.
6 min answer →

How do experiences in natural environments affect human health and wellbeing, and how can they foster lifelong engagement with nature?

Examine and evaluate how experiences in natural environments influence health and wellbeing and how they can foster lifelong engagement with the outdoors.
How time in natural environments affects physical, mental and social wellbeing, covering the evidence for nature and health, restoration and stress reduction, the benefits and barriers to engagement, and how outdoor education fosters a lifelong relationship with the outdoors.
6 min answer →