Assessment Type 3: Connections with Natural Environments (30%)

Students undertake one 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 may, for example:

• consider their personal connections with nature and how their thinking has changed as a result of time spent in natural environments, e.g. work/life balance, potential transference to daily life, or future experiences
• explore environmental issues specific to natural environments and analyse actions to promote sustainable practices
• investigate the impact of human intervention on a wilderness area, to assess and evaluate the degree of naturalness of the area
• extend their personal and collaborative experiences in natural environments to consider potential lifelong connections and transference of learning to daily life, e.g. in recreational or professional life
• explore personal involvement and/or entrepreneurial opportunities in nature therapy, adventure therapy, adventure tourism, or education
• investigate, analyse, and evaluate park management strategies for a relatively natural environment of interest
• investigate a conservation initiative for a local or visited natural area
• investigate an environmental issue relevant to their own experience in natural environments.

The evidence should comprise a maximum of 2000 words if written, or 12 minutes if oral, or the equivalent in multimodal form (where 6 minutes is equivalent to 1000 words).

The following specific features of the assessment design criteria for this subject are assessed in Assessment Type 3: Connections with Natural Environments:

• evaluation and reflective practice — ERP3
• exploration, understanding, and analysis — EUA1, EUA3