The Outdoor Education connections with natural environments assessment type is assessed externally. Materials should be submitted online for marking by late October (Round 2).

Students undertake one Connections with Natural Environments task, based on their understanding of and experiences in natural environments. Students independently choose an area of interest to further explore the connections they have made.

Students may use the evidence collected in Assessment Type 2: Experiences in Natural Environments. Students may use the skills and understanding developed while participating, leading, and/or facilitating outdoor activities and journeys, and/or their own outdoor experiences. They use these skills and understanding to explore the personal connections they have made with nature to enhance their own personal growth and development, and/or strategies for environmental sustainability.

Students complete one task. The task should be a maximum of 2000 words if written, or 12 minutes if oral, or the equivalent in multimodal format.

The following specific features of the assessment design criteria are assessed in the connections with natural environments:

• Exploration, understanding, and analysis (EUA1, EUA3)
• Evaluation and reflective practice  (ERP3)

Student work should be their own. All externally assessed investigations must be verified by a teacher. See Supervision and verification of student work.

Teachers can access student samples for school assessment and external assessment components via PLATO.