Marcia Cross Philip Hughes Andrew Mannion - Nelson Outdoor and Environmental Studies

Ar ea of Study 1 M otivations for outdoor e xperience s Chapter 1 (page ) UNIT

KEY KNOWLEDGE t he use and meanings of terms including nature , outdoor enviro nments, wilderness, managed park s, urban enviro nments and built enviro nments (page ) KEY SKILLS p lan for and r eflec t upon a range of practical o utdoor experienc es and anal yse r elevan t information collected durin g these experienc es d efine and describe a range of r elevan t terms a naly se motivations fo r seeking outdoor experien ces a naly se ways in which o utdoor enviro nments can be known, e xperience d and re sponded to, by re flecting on both personal ex periences and the ex periences of other people u se appro priate practical skills f or safe participation in outdoor ex periences Extract fro m the VCE Outdoor and Envir onment al Studies Study Design 201822 (2017 ) The Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VC AA). Used with permission. CHAPTER MOTIVA TI ONS FOR OUTDOO R EXPERIENCES 9780170401777

USES AND MEANINGS OF COMMON TERMS T o star t with, w e need to define some common concepts for an ag r eed context to descr ibe and understand what will come thro ughout this textbook and the Outdoor and Env ironm ental Studies course. Uses of the term nature Natur e is one of those w or ds that seems pr etty simple until w e ha v e to actually come up with a definition for it. A nd what seemed to be common sense and simple start s to hav e a number of differ ent aspects and becomes more complex. The first thing to re cognise with the w or d nature is that we use it in a wide va ri ety of contexts and situations including some where the meaning seems to change , or at least be a little different from others. The follow ing list giv es some of the different contexts and uses of the w or d. Human nature a ter m used to talk about the innate qualities of humans; that is, the character istics of our beha viour that w e r e bor n with. Some people sa y that agg r ession is human nature , or that sadness is human nature . T his relates to the notion of something being natural (which w ell discuss br iefly belo w) that is, human natur e is the w a y humans naturally ar e . Nature v ers us nurt ure the concept that refers to a common debate in the past fe w decades over a ke y aspect of human de vel opment: you r genetic make up (nature) v ers us the env ironm ent you are raised in (n urt ure). Nature her e is tak en t o mean the genetic code that is found in yo ur cells and gov ern s how yo ur cells and body dev elo p and operate. The law s of nature often discussed when talking about science and ph ysics, and r efer s to descr iptions (often mathematical) of the w a y the ph ysical w orld w orks, and the w a y par ts of the physi cal wo rld interact with, and relate to , each other. Y o u may hav e h eard of Ne wton s Law of CHAPTER 1 M OTIVA TI ONS FOR OUTDOO R EXPERIENCES 9780170401777 Nature can be something, or some place, we observe. Alamy Stock Photo/Radius Images

Unive rsal Grav itation, which is a mathematical descr ip tion of how grav ity wo rks betwe en two objects. T his is a law of nature . The nature of w e often use the expr ession the natur e of (something) when descr ibing ho w something w orks, or some impor tant featur e or character istic of something. If someone asked yo u about the nature of gr avit y , for example, they ar e re ally asking: What s this thing called g ra vity all about, ho w does it w ork, and what does it do? Mother Nature a ter m that r efer s to the Ear th s biosphere ; that is, all of the li ving things on Earth a nd the pro cesses and systems that are part of, or related to , these living things. biosphere The plac e on Earth s surface w here life dwells NELSON OUTDOOR AND ENVIRONMENT AL STUDIES 9780170401777 Nature can be a journey or an ex perience. Andrew Mann ion On a ro ad, nature might be separated fr om us by the car window , o r we might walk thr ough it. Alamy Stock Photo/Tim Hester

MOTHER NA TUR E The concept of Mother Nature raises an interesting question: W hy mother nature , as opposed to f ather natur e? W e often g i v e a gender or sex to par ticular objects or ideas, such as Shell be r ight, mate or She s a gre at car, and often that gender is female. In part icular, when humans refer to the Eart h s biosphere when we talk about the living things and the ecosystems that they re a part of we almost alw ays seem to use a female gender. In fact, there ar e man y languages wher e nouns (the w or ds for things) ar e gi ven a part icular gender. Fr ench, Ger man, Spanish and man y other languages (although, inter estingly , not English), all ha v e nouns that are consider ed masculine and other nouns consider ed feminine . T hey also ha ve a third neutral gender for some nouns. In almost all of these gender ed languages, natur e is a feminine noun. This is pro bably a thr owb ack to , or remnant fr om, early human societies where the female qualities were the life-giv ing ones. Wo men we re the bear ers and n urt urers of childr en, and so ecosystems and other living things w er e seen fr om t his female-specific perspectiv e. Man y early human societies had belief systems based on a large n umber of gods, and it w as common for the gods and of living things to be female . The ancient Greeks had a huge collection of gods, including Zeus, A pollo , Po seidon, A phro dite and man y other s, as w ell as the Mother Goddess Gaia. F or the Romans, ther e w as T er ra. F or the Andean peoples of South Am eri ca, there w as P acham ama. A nd some Indigenous Au stralian communities had the goddess Eingana. For these cultur es, the Eart h goddesses usually created and n urt ured the ph ysic al wo rld and we re used to explain and understand the wo rld aro und them. MEANINGS OF NAT URE Therefor e, as we use the ter m nature in a va ri ety of different w ays , this make s defining it tr ic ky . But w e all kno w what it is w e r e talking about, don t w e? Nature is pro bably best thought of as the li ving things, the ecosystems and the pro cesses that for m them, and the places in which w e find all of these . In essence , what w e call natur e could also r efer to natural en vir onments, which shall be discussed shor tly . NAT URAL, UNNA TU RAL AND ARTIFICIAL Natur e often comes in a kind of contin uum such as when w e talk about something that is natural, or something that is unnatural, or e v en something that is ar tificial. Something that is natural is said to occur out ther e some wher e or comes fr om natur e itself . Unnatural usually refers to an object or pr oces s that humans hav e i nfluenced in some wa y . A rtificia l, at the end of the continuum, refers to things that ar e cre ated by humans. In summary : Natural is easy enough to define a eucalyptus tre e, an echidna and a tro pical rainforest ar e all examples of natural things. Artificial is pro bably just as easy to explain a car , a computer or the aspart ame chemical swee tener in a diet soft dr in k are all examples of art ificial things. Unnatural gets a little tr ickier , and the nor mal use of the ter m raises an inter esting issue that w ell look at br iefly a little later . The intr oduction of rabbits into Australia, the r ose gar den in someone s fr ont y ar d, or a do wnhill ski slope ar e all examples of unnatural things, since each of these occur s only because of human impact in (or on) a par ticular place . An interesting debate that has occur re d in recent y ea rs is aro und the dev el opment of food that is genetically modified called genetically modified organisms (GMOs). One example of a GMO is golden r ice (called this because of its y ello w colour). Golden r ice w as eng ineer ed to include beta-car otene , a form of vitamin A , because of deficiencies in many de vel oping wo rld diets. It is estimated that aro und Mother Nature The Earth s biosphere all of the living things on Earth and the proces ses and systems that are part of , or re lated to, these living things ecosystem A community of interdep endent species and their environmen t nature The living things, the ecosystems and the proces ses that form them, and the places in which we find all of these CHAPTER 1 M OTIVA TI ONS FOR OUTDOO R EXPERIENCES 9780170401777