We all know that spending a day close to nature can give our health and wellbeing a massive boost.
But there’s an ever-increasing body of scientific research backing up this anecdotal evidence via the ‘biophilia hypothesis’, a hypothesis that humans evolved to have an affinity with nature.
The Evidence
Its proponent, the biologist and naturalist Edward O. Wilson, stated that not only are we drawn to nature but being close to nature is vital for our health and wellbeing. The hypothesis has led to two major theories - Attention Restoration Theory and Stress Reduction Theory which scientists nowadays use to provide insights into how our health is affected by spending time outside.
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Both theories have fuelled research showing that being outside in green spaces provides children with opportunities to be more creative, take more risks and make discoveries which influence brain development.
Spending time in nature is not only linked to these cognitive benefits but also improvements to mood, mental health and emotional wellbeing.
Getting Children Outside
First things first though. Getting children away from their smartphones and encouraging them to spend more time outside with their friends can be tricky.
One way of doing so is to provide outside dining areas in schools near to nature which can be vitally important for those children who don’t have access to a garden or park near their home.
Our SpaceMax dining canopies provide children with an extra space to sit and eat dinner with their friends, something they may not experience at home.
Dining with your friends also increases social skills away from the pressures of the classroom. Also creating an outdoor dining space means schools can hold clubs and society meetings during lunch times, providing more opportunities for children to socialise and mix with other children of different ages.
Lastly, outdoor dining can help children destress if they live in an overcrowded environment.
A Boost to Concentration and Memory
Studies show that being exposed to nature improves working memory, cognitive flexibility, the ability to concentrate and pay attention but exposure to urban environments has the opposite effect.
And you don’t need to be exposed to nature for long periods of time, research published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology found.
In a paper entitled ‘40-second green roof views sustain attention: The role of micro-breaks in attention restoration’ the scientists found that students who looked out at a green roof for 40 seconds midway through a task made significantly fewer mistakes than those who gazed at a concrete rooftop for the same amount of time.
Access to Green Spaces Predicts Later Mental Health
Having access to green space has been shown to affect whether children will go on to develop psychiatric disorders.
An important study ‘Residential green space in childhood is associated with lower risk of psychiatric disorders from adolescence into adulthood’ published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science in the United States of America (PNAS) in 2019, showed that children who grew up with the lowest levels of green space had up to 55% higher risk of developing a psychiatric disorder, independent from effects of other known risk factors.
Scientists looked at the data of more than 900,000 people born between 1985 and 2003 in Denmark and their mental health outcomes and used satellite data to assess their exposure to green space from birth to age 10.
The study affirms the importance of integrating natural environments into urban planning as a promising approach to improve mental health and reduce the rise of psychiatric disorders.
Dining canopies are a link to nature
Many schools who struggle for space locate their dining canopies near to nature to maximise these health and wellbeing benefits.
If you’re interested in creating a different dining experience at your school, our team of experts will be happy to help you find the best area to maximise students' access to nature and green space.
