The environment impacts learning for Tennessee students. Here’s how.

The environment significantly impacts student achievement and mental health.

The State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) – a Tennessee education advocacy nonprofit – notes that while extreme weather may hinder student success, nature-based learning improves students’ mental health and academic performance.

The healing effects of nature-based learning

SCORE’s latest Connecting the Dots event hosted educators like Tennessee Teacher of the Year, Bryan Kerns, who told the crowd that spending time outdoors helps kids navigate difficult situations.

“When I get kids whose parents are strung out on the couch at home and I get them up on Bays Mountain,” he said, “And I say this is all that matters right now.”

The fire science teacher from Kingsport said teaching students about the unique nature found in Appalachia builds their confidence.

SCORE’s founder and chairman, former Sen. Bill Frist, echoed Kern’s sentiments, stressing that nature-based learning enhances students’ social and emotional development, improves attention, engagement and motivation while also reducing stress. He said kids get these benefits by just spending 10 to 50 minutes outside each day.

Extreme weather and learning loss

At the same time, extreme weather, like flooding and high heat, can lead to learning loss among students. Frist highlighted how heat waves have impacted Tennessee students, noting that last year Memphis-Shelby County Schools had to dismiss 12 schools early due to high temperatures and failing HVAC systems.

Jonathan Klein, co-founder and CEO of the national non-profit UndauntedK12, told WPLN News that hot classrooms and inadequate facilities contribute to student achievement disparities.

“As much as 5% of the score gap between white students and their Black and Latino counterparts can be explained by high heat in classrooms,” he said.

Data show a 13% decline in test performance on days reaching 90°F compared to 72°F, and math performance declines three times more than reading during heat waves.

Klein said that many school buildings were built at a time when there weren’t so many high heat days. His nonprofit seeks to modernize public school buildings so they can withstand the challenges of climate change.

Nashville just had the seventh-hottest summer on record, with several days reaching 90 degrees in August after students had returned to school.

The hundreds gathered at the SCORE event stressed the importance of creating bipartisan policy solutions to create climate-resilient school facilities. Some of those ideas include adding more trees to schoolyards, upgrading HVAC systems, installing solar power and battery storage, addressing students’ climate anxiety and implementing more environmental education.