Despite clear benefits to children’s physical and mental health, focus, academic success, and encouraging sustainability behaviors, integrating consistent outdoor time into school activities can be challenging. In a research project following 17 teachers from upstate New York, a Cornell team explored if and how teachers were able to use the green space in their elementary schoolyard, generating results that could help provide children with consistent access to natural spaces.

The work, supported by the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, the Cornell Einhorn Center for Community Engagement, and the Cornell Master of Public Health program, was published on Dec 3 in the journal Frontiers in Public Health.

“The goal of this project is to make it easier for schools and educators to take students outside during the school day consistently, so students get the benefits of spending time in nature repeatedly throughout each week,” says Dr. Amie Patchen, lecturer in the Department of Public and Ecosystem Health, who co-led the study with Dr. Gen Meredith, associate professor in the same department. “Often, outdoor time in schools is tied to an event, like a field trip, but when this ends so does the outdoor time.”

In a previous study, Patchen and Meredith showed that teachers face many barriers – real or perceived – to take students out in nature, ranging from weather to safety, interest, availability of green spaces, scheduling constraints, and concerns around the curriculum and administrative regulations. Based on 33 such barriers collectively identified by teachers, Patchen and Meredith created a toolkit to help educators find strategies to overcome these barriers.

Over the eight weeks of the study, the researchers collected feedback at 15 time points from the participating teachers, asking them if they had spent time in nature with their class today. To help teachers put their idea into action, the study provided mini grants of up to $300 per teacher to buy tools like raincoats, boots or wagons for gear. 

All 17 teachers took their classes outside at least one time on the 15 surveyed days, and collectively they took them out on 78% of the opportunities over the eight weeks – citing the benefit to children’s health as their main motivation to do so. The time they spent outdoors varied, with younger-aged classes spending on average more time outside. Some teachers used part of the time in nature to complement their academic teaching; others used it for free play. 

While teachers were able to incorporate consistent outdoor time into their class routine, the study showed that activities, amount of time, and barriers varied across teachers and days. “We inferred that, to be able to implement consistent outdoor time more widely, teachers require flexible strategies so they can do what works best for their class,” Patchen said. 

The researchers point out that the study may be an idealized situation: All participating schools had easy access to green space in the schoolyard, which may not be true for all schools, especially those in more urban districts, and all principals at the participating schools supported the project. “We might want to consider these as data from a sample of early adopters, as these teachers opted in to participate,” Meredith said. 

To develop more broadly generalizable data, Meredith and Patchen hope to continue this work, including follow-up with the participating teachers, administrators and students. While the benefits of spending time in nature are widely accepted, access to greenspace is not universal, Meredith said. “By exploring existing barriers and approaches, we can understand how schools can overcome barriers to support health, wellbeing, and academic success equitably, across classes and grades.” 

Written by Elodie Smith