nature screen - rationale
Rationale
We have been building the evidence base for our Nature Screen system under four interrelated impacts: Relax, Revive, Think and Thrive. Here you will find this rationale together with references that underpin our approach. The individual impacts are explored above. All are founded on leveraging education technology in the classroom, i.e. Interactive White Boards and high speed broadband connectivity, to rebalance children's neurochemistry and reduce behavioural and cognitive inhibitors to learning.
Nature interventions such as Forest Schools have become widely adopted in primary phase education. Despite commodification, at heart they are about child centred learning, risk taking and curiosity, as well as nature. These strategies feel intuitively beneficial but what most outdoor learning fans are not aware of is the effect of nature on brain neurochemistry. Theories such as Attention Restoration Theory (ART) and Biophilia have been the subject of research over decades and offer coherent explanations. It is now broadly accepted that features in the natural world such as colour, fractal geometry, movement or water can alter the balance of our brain chemistry and with it our ability to deal with stress or think.
As an educational media company, Cornucopia TV (www.cornucopia.tv) has created the low cost Nature Screen system to deliver these benefits directly into the classroom - not bypassing nature but capturing it in ways that are authentically translated into digital experiences. The system aims to directly affect brain neurochemistry and children's ability to manage their emotions (Relax), restore their attention for learning (Revive), aid cognition (Think) and have a long-term impact on their educational attainment (Thrive).
Environmental Psychology research into simulated nature suggests that it can have over 50% of the beneficial effect of nature itself. We are therefore continuously evaluating our approach and developing the Nature Screen system to increase the effectiveness across different content (in terms of time/type etc) for different groups of pupils.
We know that this innovation can have a transformative effect on children's educational futures, impacting most significantly on the 10 children in every primary school class of 30 that has behavioural, mental health or learning difficulties. This is a full-blown crisis that was present even before Covid, but now every school and every teacher understands the need to address it as a priority.
We are currently conducting field studies into the mental health and cognitive gains of digital nature experiences in primary age children to develop Nature Screen into the most practical system for delivery to all primary schools in the UK. We welcome all early adopters and contributions to these studies so please get in touch via admin@naturescreen.org