It's Interesting!

It’s interesting.

It’s interesting how nature can affect students.

It’s interesting that, even though we know nature affects students, traditional instruction persists (traditional being inside classrooms for most of the instruction).

One study that was conducted in Australia was with three classes of students (age 13-14) and took place for ten weeks. This study found that outdoor classrooms may promote less disengagement and misbehavior in class. Norwood, M. F., Lakhani, A., Kendall, E., (2021). Teaching traditional indoor school lessons in nature: The effects on student learning and behaviour. Landscape and Urban Planning, 206, 1-10.

Another study of four 3rd grade classes taught curriculum lessons outside. This study found that “spending one extra class period outdoors per week significantly reduced anxiety among third graders during a time when anxiety was peaking for other students.” Rıan, S. W., Coll, K. M., (2021). Increased exposure to nature reduces elementary students’ anxiety. Ecopsychology

In yet another study, they found “that even a relatively short exposure to nature (30-40 min) improves endogenous attention (consciously choosing to pay attention) and a relatively short dose of an urban environment taxes endogenous attention in children.” Basically, this means that the students are choosing to pay attention to a topic or an activity for a sustained amount of time. Johnson,S.A., Snow, S., Rainham, L., Rainham, D.G.C., (2019). Quasi-randomized trial of contact with nature and effects on attention in children. Frontiers in Psychology, 10

To me that makes it pretty clear (and that is only three articles) that going outside is good for students. Now, let's have Natural Connections Academy combine being outside with learning science, math, reading, writing, and social studies with real world situations and see what great things can happen!