Greenhouses as Main Learning Spaces🌱🌱

This summer, as an open university student at Helsinki University, I am taking an online course called "Neuroscience in Educational Sciences", which is enhancing my understanding of how we can create optimal learning environments based on brain science. The course, led by Finnish neuroscience professor Minna Huotilainen and the course team, covers diverse topics in the lectures, such as sleep and its role in learning, the benefits of physical activity on brain function, and the connection between nutrition and academic performance, as well as its impact on overall well-being. Each lecture ends with questions that encourage the course participants to ponder ways to optimize learners´ learning and well-being in educational environments based on neuroscience.

In this post, I´ll address two questions that were asked at the end of the ´Nutrition and Learning´ lecture, where the short term and long term effects of eating habits on learning, as well as what kind of a diet is beneficial for the brain functions were discussed. The questions were:

• How can we help learners (or ourselves) reach a diet that is healthy for the brain in the long term?

• How can we help learners (or ourselves) protect their brains from toxins?

Azra Kohen, a Turkish author, recently shared the AI-generated photo below on her Instagram account, explaining a bit about her vision for the future of education. I believe that this vision can plant the seeds for finding answers to the questions above.

📷 credit: Akeelah

This vision of hers leads me to explore two main concepts:

• The possible effects of the learning experiences in greenhouses on the learners' awareness of maintaining a healthy diet for the brain in the long-term, including protection from toxins (see question 1).

• A roadmap for greenhouses to become the primary learning spaces and to achieve widespread adoption (see question 2).

1. In what ways might learning experiences in greenhouses support learners' awareness of eating healthy through insights from neuroscience, leading to long-term impacts in their lives?

The incorporation of greenhouses and gardens as a part of the educational approach can already be seen in different educational projects and systems, and it has proven to have many benefits for the learners (Bowker & Tearle, 2007;  Blair, 2010; Chawla et al., 2014;  Baker et al., 2015; YY Chang et al., 2016; Ohly et al., 2016). The interdisciplinary and experiential nature of greenhouse and gardening practices offer a valuable learning environment for the learners, and learning experiences in greenhouses can also enhance their awareness and understanding of healthy eating through insights from neuroscience, promoting long-term impacts in their lives.

Blending different fields of study, such as biology, environmental science, and chemistry, which can be linked to the neuroscience, can provide learners with a holistic understanding of nutrition, diet, and their impacts on brain functions. For example, topics discussed in the 'Nutrition and Learning' lecture, such as the importance of maintaining even blood sugar levels, the gut-brain connection, the benefits of a healthy diet, and the harmful aspects of toxin intake, and their effects on behavior and mood changes, as well as mental and cognitive development, can be directly discussed with the learners in an age-appropriate way. Furthermore, this experiential learning environment in the greenhouse offers hands-on activities that enable learners to actively engage with the content, allowing them to explore, experience, feel, and live the information.

I do think that this whole experience strengthens learners' understanding and appreciation of maintaining a healthy diet, affecting their eating habits in the long-term. They can give informed decisions about what they take into their bodies throughout their lives. Beyond the enhanced understanding and appreciation of healthy diets, these learning experiences in the greenhouses can also lead to other benefits as Azra Kohen and many other researchers have explained that deserve further exploration in different blog posts.

2. How can greenhouses be effectively transformed into primary learning spaces and widely adopted in educational settings?

I believe that the answers to the questions discussed in the 'Nutrition and Learning' lecture have been brainstormed up to this point in this post. On the other hand, replacing traditional concrete classrooms with greenhouses raises the idea of building school-sized greenhouses for the entire school population, which does not sound very convenient. There can be more practical ways to first introduce greenhouses as primary learning spaces and then expand their use.

As stated above, various educational systems, such as Waldorf Schools, integrate greenhouses and gardens in their educational practices. So, firstly, there can be a pilot program where an existing greenhouse can be adapted and used as a main learning environment for a specific classroom.

Then, Ivan Illich's ideas on education, which take it out of the school, can be an inspiration for us to expand the use of greenhouses as main learning environments. In his 1971 book Deschooling Society, Illich states that learning should extend beyond schools.

He values the learning time with elders and other experts throughout the community at public centers such as libraries and museums. He proposes encouraging childen and families to engage in educational activities through pop-up classrooms, apprenticeships, and neighbourhood or city-level educational organizations. These efforts facilititate skill exchanges, and interest-based peer-matching systems, leading to real-life learning and collaboration. Dr. Zachery Stein, a writer, speaker, transformative educator, and Harvard University alumnus enhances Illich's opinions integrating them with technology and presents them to us in his 2019 book called Education in a Time Between Worlds: Essays on the Future of Schools, Technology, and Society where he introduces his vision of what education could be tomorrow within a vast array of topics, some of which are the neuroscience of learning, de-schooling, and educational technology. According to Stein (2019), similar to Illich's perspective, education should be increasingly diverged from traditional schooling and the large public schools should no longer be synonymous with education in the near future (p.77). Stein (2019) furthers Illich's learning environmnet vision with techology, stating that already existing neighbourhood schools should be repurposed as public and community engagement centers (p.93). These community centers or learning hubs utilize a technology-based platform allowing parents and students to have accounts, enabling peer-to-peer networking and inclusion in regional educational setups for all children (Stein, 2019, p.93). Below is a sample scenario about what a learning day could look like in his vision:

Both Ivan Illich and Zachery Stein share a vision of education that diverges from the traditional model of large schools. According to them, education should be integrated into the community, enabling learning through apprenticeships, skill exchanges, and peer-matching systems based on interests. While their opinions on education are not directly about using greenhouses as main classrooms, they provide a vision for us that can be adapted to support this approach. Connecting their educational philosophies with Azra Kohen's vision can provide a rich, interdisciplinary, and community-focused approach to education. Instead of building new greenhouses, the already existing ones, situated in the neighbourhood or in the city, might be a part of the regional educational configurations and serve as learning hubs for the learners.

If we consider Althea's learning day, the local education hub that she and her friends go could be a greenhouse in the city. Alternatively, this greenhouse could be one of the main educational facilities for them to choose when they design their learning days. This concept can also be adapted and customized to cater to the different ages and needs, similar to the vision proposed by Azra Kohen.

Using greenhouses as the main learning environments has the potential to create a future where education nurtures lifelong learners who are connected to themselves and their environment. They would be more capable of making informed choices for their well-being, including their eating habits, and the environment.

A question:

• What steps can educational systems and communities take to transition towards utilizing greenhouses as primary learning spaces, ensuring they become accessible and effective learning environments for the learners?

References:

Baker, M. R., Waliczek, T. M., & Zajicek, J. M. (2015). The Effect of School Gardening Activities on Visual-Motor Integration of Pre-School and Kindergarten Students. Journal of therapeutic horticulture, 25(2), 3-14.

Blair, D. (2009). The child in the garden: An evaluative review of the benefits of school gardening. The journal of environmental education, 40(2), 15-38.

Bowker, R., & Tearle, P. (2007). Gardening as a learning environment: A study of children’s perceptions and understanding of school gardens as part of an international project. Learning Environments Research, 10, 83-100.

Chawla, L., Keena, K., Pevec, I., & Stanley, E. (2014). Green schoolyards as havens from stress and resources for resilience in childhood and adolescence. Health & place, 28, 1-13.

Illich, I. (1971). Deschooling society.

Stein, Z. (2019). Education in a time between worlds: Essays on the future of schools, technology, & society. Bright Alliance.

Ohly, H., Gentry, S., Wigglesworth, R., Bethel, A., Lovell, R., & Garside, R. (2016). A systematic review of the health and well-being impacts of school gardening: synthesis of quantitative and qualitative evidence. BMC Public Health, 16, 1-36.