High-school students concentrate better, recover more quickly from stress, and improve their test results when their classrooms have windows that look out onto grass and trees, according to a study from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.
Researchers gave high-school students various intellectual tasks after giving them a study break. Students who took a break in rooms with a view outperformed those in windowless rooms or rooms looking out onto parking lots or buildings. The “green” students also showed less physiological stress and reported less mental fatigue than did members of control groups.
TRENDPOST: Landscaping schools and installing windows may do as much to improve learning and student achievement as do investments in materials or software, the study indicates. Similar results probably could be coaxed from knowledge workers in a campus-like complex instead of a conventional office tower.