Thinking Outside
If your child wants more out of education, is under-achieving, or has trouble remembering what they’ve studied in science, English and history classes, they will benefit from “Our Place,” Biocitizen’s 5-day field environmental philosophy camp.
An excellent article in the New York Times explains:
In a recent study, Marc Berman, a researcher in cognitive psychology and industrial engineering at the University of Michigan, …. validate[d] attention-restoration theory (A.R.T.), a 20-year-old idea that posits a stark difference in the ability of natural and urban settings to improve cognition. Nature, A.R.T. holds, increases focus and memory because it is filled with “soft fascinations” (rustling trees, bubbling water) that give those high-level functions the leisure to replenish, whereas urban life is filled with harsh stimuli (car horns, billboards) that can cause a kind of cognitive overload. In Berman’s study, the nature-walkers showed a dramatic improvement while the city-walkers did not, demonstrating nature’s significant restorative effects on cognition.
Thinking Outside
Take a look at our teaching philosophy and you’ll see: we do exactly what the article describes.
After fifteen years of teaching outdoors, I can assure you Dr. Berman is correct. After five days of learning environmental history in the field, your child will experience **significant restorative effects** in their cognitive abilities. In fact, I promise they’ll learn things that they’ll be able to use to construct an understanding of what the “environment’ is, and how they fit into it—an understanding they’ll continue to build upon and use to positive ends for the rest of their lives.
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