Parent Talk / April 2006
Project EverGreen
Mothers who have spent hours in the park with their children already know what recent studies have documented. Kids benefit from an extra helping of green space. That’s the conclusion from an extensive review of studies assessing the environmental impact of turf, trees, shrubs, and other landscaping on the lives of youth from grade school to college.
“What we discovered,” says Den Gardner, executive director of Project EverGreen, “is strong evidence that working to maintain and enhance green space in a youngster’s environment has multiple benefits.”
As part of Project EverGreen’s educational mission, the studies cited by Gardner have been compiled in a series of economic, environmental and lifestyle fact sheets . One benefit they revealed was an improved attention span. The summations remarked that “...by boosting children’s attentional resources, green spaces may enable them to think more clearly and cope more effectively with life’s stress.”
Another benefit was better ability to handle pressure: A University of Illinois study found that girls exposed to green settings were better able to handle peer pressure, sexual pressure and other challenging situations–and improved their performance in school.
Green spaces also created a more advantageous atmosphere for learning: A university class rotated between two classrooms. One contained plants and foliage, and one did not. Year-end results showed inattentiveness was reduced by 70 percent in the room containing plants, and the plant class had better exam performance.
To view the studies cited, visit http://www.projectevergreen.com/resources/index.html.
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