At the beginning of the year (2023), Strobilo took part in a UNESCO research project to measure the brain activity of children taking outdoor classes.

The project involved both indoor and outdoor EEG (electroencephalogram) monitoring, on elementary school  Ivana Groharja (Slovenia) and Hellvik Skole (Norway).

The cognitive performance of the children who attended their classes indoor was compared to that of the children who attended the same subject’s classes in a Geopark (a Unesco site protected through sustainable development strategies; Unesco brings together 195 geoparks globally).

At Magma Geopark in Egersund, Norway, the children had the opportunity to attend their Science class outside, in direct contact with nature. Here are the results (graphs), compared with the lessons in the classroom.

 

   

 

During the outdoor science lesson (SOL, Science Outdoor Lesson), the levels of focus and attention of the children appear to be higher compared to the same parameters recorded in the classroom, both during Science class (SIL, Science Indoor Lesson) and general subjects (GIL, General Indoor Lesson).

The indicator for Engagement levels, that goes to express interest and involvement of the children and can affect learning processes, also varies considerably (positively for SOLs).

So yes, neuroscience tells us that there are in fact cognitive benefits for children who take classes outdoors, where they can observe directly and in real-time the natural phenomena mentioned by the teacher.