Climate Change in Your Classroom?

Yes, Environment Can Make a Difference

Create learning-friendly surroundings.

Is your personal school space clean? When you stepped into your doctor’s office, was it clean or cluttered? Were there green plants growing anywhere? Would you decline service in a drab massage parlor? Would you return to a restaurant where the temperature was unbearable?

Education and Neuroscience Workbook coming soon!

The Science I Explored

One’s living environment has a profound impact on both health and brain plasticity. Indeed, an increasing number of studies show that exposure to prolonged stress can increase the risk of not only cardiovascular diseases and cancers but also neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases. In contrast, a stimulating environment can contribute to improved health and behavioral performances by optimizing brain plasticity. Enriched Environment Aspects (are) sensory stimulations, physical activity, exploration and learning, social interactions.

How does one define an EE for humans? It probably includes activities associated with spatial learning and motor coordination, such as sport, artistic and creative activities (for example, music or dance), learning new skills, training memory, playing games, and the presence of a developed social life, whereas life as a recluse, a prisoner, in temporary or permanent isolation could undermine the cognitive and learning abilities of the hippocampus. Elderly citizens are at particular risk of such decline. Conversely, a stimulating environment, such as that associated with a balanced lifestyle, should favor hippocampus activity, leading to enhanced learning aptitudes and improved adaptability to new situations.[1] 

…Color, as part of the electromagnetic spectrum, is in its purest form energy, a wavelength, which has its own magnetic frequency…colors can affect neurological pathways in the brain…they can create a biochemical response…

Using the right color, and the correct selection and placement, can seriously affect feelings, attention, and behavior when learning. It’s time that we leveraged that to our advantage. Even research with Alzheimer’s patients has shown that color cues improve memory and that learners recall images in color more easily than images in black and white…[2] 

A Situation

The school year is about to begin, and the educator stands in front of an empty, neutrally painted room.

Creating an Enriched Environment

The idea is that certain details in our environment impact our learning. So before doing anything, take some time to imagine what it would be like if you could create the most wonderful learning environment for a child. Close your eyes and try to see it.

Now begin with a question: What color would I like to use to influence the children? You can paint one wall, wallpaper a single wall, use bulletin board paper, or a poster of a certain color. Use the color knowing that it will induce a certain chemical reaction.

Next, decide the physical flow of your room and how students will traverse it, and also decide how they will socially engage with it on a daily basis.

Finally, decide where students can engage in explorative learning. Will there be manipulatives to build or work out science or math solutions? Or will you include a tablet with programs where children interact with a molecule or perform online chemical reaction experiments? (You will likely need a system or schedule to ensure all children get an opportunity to do explorative learning.)

Listen, you don’t need a carnival in your classroom. But you can move beyond a hospital waiting room set up, right? Now let your pen move on that page and plan your classroom. Say it with me: “Our room is our haven.”

Quotes

The key to a successful learning environment is structure.

—Cara Carroll

You influence your surroundings every bit as much as they influence you.

—Kasey Anderson

[1] Hadi Zarif, Sarah Nicholas, Agnes Petit-Paitel, Joelle Chabry, and Alice Guyon, “How Does an Enriched Environment Impact Hippocampus Brain Plasticity?” IntechOpen, December 20, 2017, https://www.intechopen.com/books/the-hippocampus-plasticity-and-functions/how-does-an-enriched-environment-impact-hippocampus-brain-plasticity-.

[2] “The Psychology of Color: How do Colors Influence Learning?” Shift Disruptive Elearning, March 7, 2019, https://www.shiftelearning.com/blog/how-do-colors-influence-learning.