Nature's Classroom: Unlocking Mental Well-Being Through Outdoor Education

One of the things we’re most proud of at Koala Eco is supporting the Oceanic Society’s Critter Scholars Program and the opportunities it creates for young people to feel better simply by being in nature. Paul and I, as Co-Founders, as well as my twin Dee, the managing director of Koala Eco’s US operations and Claire, our e-commerce and Marketing Director, all have children, all brought up close to the ocean on opposite sides of the world. As Dee notes, ‘we’ve seen how being close to the water and discovering the wonder of marine life has instilled joy, awe and respect in our boys, and a lifelong love of the ocean we hope they’ll pass on to their own families.’

Whatever age we are, nature has been shown to help with stress reduction, and being in nature helps to banish mental fatigue and restore our capacity for paying attention. It’s not hard to see how this plays out in a Critter Scholars context: witness the excitement and happy faces among the kids when their patient scanning for dolphins pays off with multiple sightings in the Bay.

These kids are out there learning, paying attention, connecting with each other and expressing themselves, and it's all happening instinctively because nature is offering them the precious chance to be in the moment.

The benefits of this ‘outdoor classroom’ effect on young people has perhaps never been so important in these post-lockdown times, and there is plenty of evidence for how learning outdoors improves cognitive, physical, psychological and social outcomes. Researchers at the Université de Sherbrooke in Québec carried out a research project tracking outdoor activities with students over the 2020-21 school year, and their research showed that in the outdoors ‘learning is everywhere, whether it’s the development of knowledge or skills’.[1]

Incredibly, another study showed that even when inside a building, students perform significantly better on concentration tests when they’re looking out onto greenery, as compared to students with views only of other buildings.[2] If something like that can make a difference, imagine the actual, embodied experience of being out on the Bay, feeling the wind and the tides, and seeing where you live—as well as the creatures you share the world with—from an entirely different perspective.

Put all this together with the physical benefits—think of the balance and motor skills needed to stay standing on a boat in motion—and it’s not hard to see why outdoor education like this can be such a worthwhile, life-changing and totally joyful experience. 

[1] https://theconversation.com/outdoor-education-has-psychological-cognitive-and-physical-health-benefits-for-children-183763

[2] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0169204615002571