Health Benefits of Nature For Children
Our goal is to develop a set of evidence and metrics for communicating and measuring the benefits of nature for children’s health.
This project uses published literature to establish a set of research based metrics to establish and measure the benefits of nature on the health and wellness of youth ages 2-18. The end product will be a document outlining the evidence based benefits of nature based learning in relation to health and wellness, an evaluation tool for assessing the impact of programs on health and wellness, and recommendations for further development of activities that highlight and assess the positive benefits of nature based learning.
Objectives
- Establish measurements that demonstrate effectiveness of nature based learning
- Identify activities that lead to greatest improvement in health
- Communicate importance of nature contact as a strategy for improving health in young people
Project Outputs
- 2-3 page report detailing local health challenges and how nature based learning addresses these
- Infographic or quick fact sheet
- Series of blog articles for the REP site
- Annotated library of key research resources
Project Sponsors
This project is made possible with generous support from:
- Browncroft Pediatric Research Foundation
Please reach out if you are interested in supporting this project.
Contribute to this project
Please reach out if you are interested in getting involved.
Project Updates
Nature and Health Outcomes for Children Grant
We are excited to announce that Rochester Ecology Partners (REP) was awarded a $5,000 grant the Browncroft Pediatric Research Foundation to coalesce the science behind the benefits of nature-based learning with the health and wellness of Rochester’s children. In addition, REP will leverage this grant to develop a tool to assess the impact of our programs on health and social/emotional wellbeing of participants. This project will help bring forward the ultimate benefits found from REP’s educational programming and mission to connect all people to nature where they live, work, and play.
Where is Everyone? – Going Outside with AMDA School #12
Where is everyone? This question makes the class of kindergarteners crouched in the vegetable garden behind their school giggle, laugh, and do other joyful things that quickly reveal their hiding spots. We were outside to play and do many other important things on this crisp fall morning.