Green Spaces are Good for Students’ Brains
BARCELONA, Spain, June 15 (UPI) — Green is good. Even after adjusting for differences in socioeconomic factors, as well as race and gender, schools with more green space featured higher-performing students.
Researchers in Barcelona followed more than 2,500 second, third and fourth graders over the course of 12 months. Students who were exposed to more greenery at school saw a small reduction in inattentiveness and sizable working (or short-term) memory gains.
The scientists used satellite data to measure greenness around students’ homes and schools. Teacher surveys, class observations and testing helped researchers gauge student performance.
“Natural environments including green spaces provide children with unique opportunities such as inciting engagement, risk taking, discovery, creativity, mastery and control, strengthening sense of self, inspiring basic emotional states including sense of wonder, and enhancing psychological restoration,” researchers wrote in a paper published this week in the journal PNAS.
Researchers can’t say with certainty how added greenery gives young students a leg up — but they have some theories.
Scientists suggest green spaces (which include sports fields) offer kids more chances to exercise. Research has shown physical activity to boost learning and scholastic performance.
Green spaces (especially trees) are also credited with helping keep the air clean, and in turn, may boost learning by helping school children avoid airborne pollutants.
The study’s authors say they need to conduct more work to confirm their findings. Critics suggest mitigating factors like mental health (unaccounted for by the researchers) may explain the performance differences.
But a in similar study conducted in Massachusetts, scientists arrived at the same conclusions. Standardized test scores were higher at public elementary schools where the vegetation was thickest.
