How does exposure to nature impact school and community wellbeing?

Children in urban school settings where heat and poor air quality are prevalent are increasingly unsafe in outdoor environments. Many urban desert schools have concrete, gravel and dirt playgrounds with metal or plastic equipment that is highly unsafe during most of the desert months. These conditions strain not only the physical health but the social and emotional health of the child from the scarcity of playspace and equipment. Furthermore, these unsafe conditions prevent students from benefiting from exposure to nature and increased social cohesion that such places offer.

Maricopa County is not only one of the fastest growing metro areas of the U.S. — accompanied by a rise in poor air quality — but it is also located in a desert environment experiencing record-breaking heat in recent years.

Rapidly sprawling housing and accompanying industrial developments are contributing to the disappearance of natural landscapes, an increase of unsafe outdoor temperatures and a decrease of air quality, making it unsafe to be outside for much of the year.

Yet ample research has identified a linkage between exposure to nature and its positive physical, mental and emotional health on school children. Researchers have further linked urban green spaces to prosocial behaviors that cultivate social cohesion in ways that increase a sense of social wellbeing. In a holistic sense, the natural environment and the social environment are intricately entwined, and critical for learners.

In 2018, Winsor partnered with Dr. Jennifer Vanos, assistant professor in ASU's School of Sustainability, to launch a project to completely re-naturalize the outdoor spaces of the Paideia campuses to determine the long-term impact of heat and air quality on the physical health of the school community. This project expands the study beyond physical health to the social/emotional and educational wellbeing of the school and local community. The first phase of the redesign was completed in summer of 2021 with the school community returning to campus in August.

For his fellowship, Winsor launched a longitudinal study to determine the long-term impact of frequent childhood exposure to nature on the overall sense of wellbeing of a school community. The design of the study analyzes elements of a safe urban naturescape in an urban school setting to determine the specific relationship between (a) nature-dose, characterized by type of naturescape, frequency and duration of use and type of engagement; and (b) physical activity; (c) social connectedness; and (d) academic engagement and (e) overall sense of wellbeing within a school community for students, teachers, staff, and parents or guardians.

Prior to the re-naturalization of Paideia’s outdoor spaces, recess activity was contained mostly to the north concrete courts and dirt playground area. No students played in the south playground area. This resulted in high congestion of students on the courts and dirt playground. This condition of highly congested play areas created a sense of scarcity and competition for not only play equipment and play space but also for social connections. Many students spent more time standing in line to play a court or field game than they did in physical or social activity. During high heat days students huddled under shade trees, adding to the sense of scarcity and competition for these resources. A typical lunch recess resulted in incidents of angry interactions, minor fall injuries and student competition for social connections.

The redesign of the campus included trees, many large boulders in two bioswales, gardens, pollinator plants, hedges surrounding the campus, cooling vines on trellises and the walls, outdoor eating and learning spaces and a water feature. The impact of the naturespace investment was not immediate. We found that the students remained mostly in the old habits of court games and soccer in the north dirt field. We discovered that the students had to be taught how to play and interact within natural spaces. Winsor spent time every morning for several days in the South Forest playing with the students. He demonstrated how to hop from boulder to boulder, how to run on a nature path, how to climb in the climbing zone and how to make a river with the water feature. As a result of showing the students how to interact with the many features of Paideia naturescape, the students now are spread throughout the outdoor campus interacting with nature and one another.

A blossoming impact of this project is the re-imagining of “recess”. In a typical school, recess is a period of time when the teacher is relieved of the students and the students have 15 minutes to “get the wiggles out”. Winsor is finding that in a nature-centric paradigm, recess is whenever the teacher and students want to be outside to freely experience nature, to engage in academic activities in the gardens, under a tree or on a boulder, to meditate or just to be together. He and his team have found that this re-imagining of the “playground” is increasing physical activity, social connectedness and a sense of overall wellbeing in our school community.