In Year 11 Outdoor and Environmental Studies, explore Our place in outdoor environments; Exploring outdoor environments. See the learning outline, assessment information and original sample before choosing.
Confirm your cohort: The official course page checked 10 November 2026 links the study design implemented from 2024. Separate explicit confirmation for 2027 has not been established; applicability remains provisional and current VCAA amendments must be checked.
What will I learn?
Our place in outdoor environments
Unit 1Exploring outdoor environments
Unit 1Safe and sustainable participation in outdoor experiences
Unit 1Understanding outdoor environments
Unit 2Observing impacts on outdoor environments
Unit 2Independent participation in outdoor environments
Unit 2Unit 3, AOS 1 — Changing human relationships with outdoor environments
Year 12 guide — check cohort versionThis area of study opens with Australian outdoor environments before humans arrived — their biological isolation, geological stability and climatic variation — then follows the relationships that specific Indigenous peoples' communities held with Country before and after European colonisation. It moves through the relationships non-Indigenous peoples formed with outdoor environments across three fixed historical periods: Early colonisation (1788–1859), Pre-Federation (1860–1900) and Post-Federation (1901–1990). It closes on the beginnings of environmentalism and its influence on government and political party policy, studied through one of three prescribed campaigns: Lake Pedder, the Franklin River or the Little Desert.
Unit 3, AOS 2 — Relationships with Australian environments in the past decade
Year 12 guide — check cohort versionThe second area of study brings the story to the present. It covers Indigenous peoples' custodianship today, including land and water councils and the process by which a group becomes a Registered Aboriginal Party, and distinguishes conservation, recreation and economic relationships with outdoor environments. The core of the area is conflict over use: the methods individuals and groups use to influence decisions, and the processes land managers follow to resolve disputes, studied through at least one listed conflict such as feral species in the Alpine National Park, commercial logging in Victoria, new mountain bike parks, Southern Ocean whale hunting or Murray-Darling Basin water allocations. It ends with an environmental issue and the policies of two federal political parties or representatives, and the influence of social debates on climate change, renewable energy or water management.
Unit 4, AOS 1 — The importance of healthy outdoor environments
Year 12 guide — check cohort versionUnit 4 opens with the pillars of sustainability — environmental, social and economic — their interdependence and the critiques levelled at sustainability as a concept. It then asks how you would actually judge whether an environment is healthy, using observable characteristics: the quality of water, air and soil, and species and ecosystem biodiversity. Two prescribed threats are studied from land degradation, introduced species, urbanisation, climate change, flood and fire, with their impacts on both society and outdoor environments. The area closes on why healthy environments matter for individual physical and emotional wellbeing and for society, and on local, national and international strategies to mitigate climate change.
Unit 4, AOS 2 — The future of outdoor environments
Year 12 guide — check cohort versionThis area of study is about who acts, and how well. It compares Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples' land management strategies for maintaining healthy, sustainable environments, then examines two prescribed Acts or conventions from the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Amendment Act 2019 (Vic), the Ramsar Convention (1971), the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cwlth), the Victorian Environmental Assessment Council Act 2001 and the Planning and Environment Act 1987 (Vic), evaluating their effectiveness and proposing changes. It also covers community actions — regenerative farming, Trust for Nature, Landcare and 'Friends of' groups — and individual actions such as environmental activism, advocacy, ethical and sustainable consumerism and green home design.
Unit 4, AOS 3 — Investigating outdoor environments
Year 12 guide — check cohort versionThe third area of study is an independent investigation into human relationships with, and the health and sustainable use of, selected outdoor environments. Students plan and conduct fieldwork across a range of outdoor environments, collect primary data authenticated through a logbook alongside relevant secondary data, and report their findings and implications using the conventions of report writing — an introduction, body and conclusion, correct terminology and appropriate representations of data.
Unit 1 — Connections with outdoor environments (not examinable, foundational)
Year 12 guide — check cohort versionUnit 1 establishes the personal and experiential foundations of the study. Students examine their own and others' motivations for, and responses to, being in outdoor environments, the different ways people know and experience those environments, and the influences of media, technology and commercialisation on how outdoor environments are perceived. Practical experiences in a range of environments are used to develop safe, sustainable and minimal-impact participation.
Unit 2 — Discovering outdoor environments (not examinable, foundational)
Year 12 guide — check cohort versionUnit 2 shifts from the personal to the environmental. Students investigate the characteristics of different types of outdoor environments and the natural processes that shape them, study the impacts humans have on outdoor environments and the impacts outdoor environments have on humans, and continue to build the practical skills for independent and sustainable participation in outdoor experiences.
How will I be assessed?
School arrangements: Units 1 and 2 are school-assessed against the study design. Ask for your school’s task and date outline. Original practice exams are not official assessment requirements.
Needs verification: Year 12 guide (VCE Outdoor and Environmental Studies Study Design (from 2024)): Units 3 and 4 are assessed through School-assessed Coursework, including the Unit 4 independent investigation with its logbook, and one end-of-year written examination worth 90 marks with 15 minutes reading time and 2 hours writing time. There is no multiple choice. Section A carries 75 to 80 marks of compulsory short-answer and extended-answer questions, many in parts labelled a, b and c and many built on written or visual stimulus such as historical images, a climate graph or a hypothetical council proposal. Section B is a single compulsory extended response worth 10 to 15 marks that draws on both units and must be supported by data and observations from at least two outdoor environments; recent papers have framed it as a letter to the editor and as a discussion of changing recreation. The 2024 and 2025 papers, the only two under the current study design, each ran Section A at 75 marks and Section B at 15. Confirm the syllabus and assessment schedule for your own completion year.
Progression and companion subjects
No complete companion or exclusion review is attached to this profile. Check the official course-entry conditions, language eligibility and your school’s sequence before enrolling. Links between resource hubs show related learning; they do not establish a compulsory prerequisite.
Will I find it hard?
Difficulty depends on your experience, interests, teaching and assessment. These are our reflection prompts, not an official difficulty rating.
- Try applying a concept to a real situation, rather than only remembering definitions.
- Check the balance of written explanation, analysis and practical work for this exact course.
Does it scale up or down?
Outdoor and Environmental Studies, 2025. The 2025 VTAC report gives rounded historical scaled study scores at seven published raw study scores. The table includes courses with individually published figures. At a raw study score of 30, the published scaled score was 24 (down 6). Direction can differ at other raw scores. Historical cohort data cannot predict your result or a future scaling direction.
| Scaled score at raw 20 | Scaled score at raw 25 | Scaled score at raw 30 | Scaled score at raw 35 | Scaled score at raw 40 | Scaled score at raw 45 | Scaled score at raw 50 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | 20 | 24 | 30 | 36 | 42 | 50 |
Scaling is not a measure of difficulty or a guaranteed bonus. Prioritise content you can engage with and required subjects for courses you are considering.
Try a little of the subject
Our place in outdoor environments
A way of knowing is an approach to understanding a place through knowledge, values, relationships and practices. The syllabus asks you to describe the listed terms and compare Indigenous and non-Indigenous perspectives using evidence. It does not require you to assign every person to one fixed outlook. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have diverse, living cultures and knowledge systems; non-Indigenous people also hold varied views. Use a particular speaker, organisation or text when explaining a perspective, and distinguish its account from a generalisation about everyone. Country , usually capitalised, refers to ancestral connections with lands, waters and skies and relationships involving people, other living things and cultural knowledge. Common Ground explains that meanings differ among First Nations. Kinship refers to culturally organised relationships and responsibilities, including family networks; the appropriate people and responsibilities differ by community. Learn local meanings from authorised knowledge holders rather than inventing them. Nature has different uses: a text may contrast it with human construction or include humans within ecological relationships. Explain the meaning used in the particular text instead of treating one definition as every non-Indigenous person’s belief. Outdoor environments in this study include places with differing degrees of modification, including local school grounds and urban parks as well as more remote settings. Wilderness is used for relatively little-modified landscapes and sometimes for a designated management category. It does not mean a place lacks Indigenous history, care or cultural significance; consult the relevant jurisdiction’s designation rather than assuming a label proves untouched land. Manage
Original practice question: A large area of a Victorian national park has no roads, buildings or vehicle access and is described in park documents as wilderness. Which statement best describes a limitation of using the term wilderness for this area?
Show the worked answer
B
This is ATARMAxxing’s original sample learning material. It is not an official assessment task or a prediction of your school’s workload.
Explore the resources
Open the Outdoor and Environmental Studies subject hub and free preview
Core subject information and planning are free. Full study resources are optional.
Sources, versions and verification dates
Profile source metadata last checked: 2026-11-10. A source check is not an endorsement by the authority or confirmation that a future course version is unchanged.
- VCAA Outdoor and Environmental Studies official course page — VCAA; 2026-11-10. Published version Official course page checked 10 November 2026; links the study design implemented from 2024. Applicability to 2027 remains provisional.. Confirm applicability to your cohort.
- VCE Outdoor and Environmental Studies Study Design — VCAA; 2026-11-10. Published version Units 1–4 from 1 January 2024; implementation commences 2024; ISBN 978-1-925867-87-9; Units 1 and 2 plus cross-study specifications read in full; downloaded source fingerprint retained in map.json. Confirm applicability to your cohort.
- ATARMAxxing VCE Outdoor and Environmental Studies Study Design (from 2024) guide — ATARMAxxing; 2026-11-14. Original existing study guide, not an independent official verification or a forecast of a future syllabus.
- VTAC 2025 scaling report: Outdoor and Environmental Studies — VTAC; 2026-11-12. The 2025 VTAC report gives rounded historical scaled study scores at seven published raw study scores. The table includes courses with individually published figures.