1. VCE Outdoor & Environmental
Studeis Unit 1 - Term 2
‘Humans and
Nature’

2. What is it?
• Understanding the relationship that humans
have with nature?
• How do we value it?
• How do we use it? Why do some people use in
certain ways and others in different ways.
• What are the effects of this?
• How can we change it.

3. Example

4. Topics
• Valuing nature
• Why we think it is important
• Ways of knowing natural environments
• How we understand nature – the way we look at it
• Access to outdoor experiences
• What affects access
• Technology‘s Influence on Outdoor Experience
• The impacts technology has had on the way we use
natural environments
• Add these to your mind map!

5. What YOU need to do
• Satisfactorily complete the tasks in your one
note notebook
• Most will be done in class
• May need to finish/catch-up in own time.
• Will be checked during term and catch up classed given
if necessary.
• Satisfactorily complete end of Semester Exam

6. Valuing Nature
• “One man’s trash is another mans treasure”
• What does this saying mean?
• You and your mum go to Kmart.
– Where do you want to go?
– Where does she want to go?
– The way that we value nature determines the way
in which we will act in it.

7. Example of a natural environment
• stream with rapids
• waterhole before rapids
• grassy green plain in front of water hole
• small shrubs, flowers and berry bushes
• Group of wallabies on grass and birds in the
trees
• Plain is only a small clearing in eucalypt forest,
• mountains in backdrop.

8. Example
• Artist – values the beauty. Wants to just sit
and watch, or capture the way he/she feels.
• Biologist – Values knowledge – wants to find
out as much as he can.
• Aborigine – values his life – will use the
environment to survive.
• Kayaker – values his own enjoyment – seeks
adventure and goes kayaking

9. What are the values people may have?
• Valuing environments as a resource
• Valuing for recreation and adventure
• Valuing for spiritual connection and sense of
place.
• Valuing as a study site.

10. Valuing for resource - Removing parts of
the environment to use.
• To survive.
• To help your family survive
• To support your community
• To make money
• To get rich
• Can Be;
– Sustainable OR eg?
– Non-sustainable eg?

11. Valuing for Adventure and
Recreation
• Activities undertaken for fun or pleasure. Not
usually competitive but rather for personal
and/or social benefits.
• Enables and provide reasons for people to
visit natural environments which they may not
have otherwise visited – allowing personal
experiences.
• Can bring impacts on environment associated
with the activities and high usage.

12. Spiritual Connection
• ‘A deep understanding and sense of belonging
in a place’. No personal gain comes from using
or being in the environment’
• “Why would it be harder for us to have a
spiritual connection with a particular
environment?” Think about the activities we
have done and the experiences we have had.

13. Typical Camp Schedule
• 7:30 – Wake Up
• 8:00 – Breakfast
• 9:00 – Morning Meeting
• 9:30 - 1st Rotation - Canoeing
• 11:00 - 2nd Rotation – Low Ropes
• 12:30 – Lunch
• 1:30 - 3rd Rotation - High Ropes
• 3:00 – 4th Rotation – Leap of faith.
• 4:30 – Meet in communal area.
• 5:00 – Free time in cabins/communal area.
• 6:00 – Dinner
• 7:00 – Free Time
• 8:00-9:00 – Night Walk
• 9:30 – In cabins
• 10:00 – Lights Out

14. Questions
• Write the definition for ‘Spiritual Connection’.
• Write down what you think it means to be a ‘slave to time’.
• Do you think you are a slave to time/technology? Include some
examples of when you think this happens and use them to
justify your decision.
• How can being a slave to time make it harder for you to have a
spiritual experience when we go on our trip this term? Refer to
your definitions of spiritual connection and “slaves to time”.
• When we go on our hike, what is one thing we could do to make
it harder, and one thing we could do to make it easier to have a
spiritual connection? Think about the things you identified that
make you a “slave to time”.