Being in school can be hard when the sun is shining and the weather is warm. It can also be hard to enjoy nature, but that can be a very important part of the learning process. Wherever you go to school, you can try to embrace the natural world around you and to appreciate the many benefits that people receive from it.

Many people enjoy being outside, hearing the birds and looking at the trees and flowers around them. Natural settings can be very calming. It can help people relax and relieve stress that they might otherwise be feeling. Outside in the fresh air, people can interact with each other in ways that are harder inside with artificial lighting and stale air. Out in nature, people can see themselves and each other in new ways.

Nature is not just about feeling good emotionally, however. It is also essential to people’s health. You probably hear a lot about the pollution in the air, which causes diseases and can seriously harm people. Trees help produce oxygen that people need to breathe, but they can also help reduce pollution by filtering out the chemicals in the air. On hot days, they help to keep the temperature down, and they provide shade from the sun. Other plants, including grass, are important, not only to make places look nice, but also to help keep the soil from washing away and otherwise keeping the environment clean and healthy.

Embracing nature on campus is also about what people can do to help keep the environment healthy. One way to do that is through cleaning up the garbage that collects on the ground. Some schools and universities have clean-up days once or twice a year when people pick up garbage, recycle what they can, and put the rest in bags to take away. That helps to make the area look nice but also removes sharp objects that can injure people and other garbage that can clog drains or cause other problems.

Your school campus might be small or very large, but you can help it to become an important natural area, whatever its size. Even after school is over for the year, you can start to make plans for how you will embrace nature wherever you go to school next. Many schools and universities have environmental policies, and it’s a good idea to learn as much as you can about that. If you see a problem, you can talk to others and see what you can do to help.

Suppose your school’s administration plans to cut down some trees to build an addition to the school. You could learn as much as you can about the plans and try to think of alternatives to avoid getting rid of any trees. Or suppose your science class wants to go on a nature walk; you could suggest looking at nature right where you are.

You might find more than you expect once you start to look.

Bibliography:

Durham College. “DC Embraces Nature During the 2015 Campus Clean-up.” http://www.durhamcollege.ca/new-notable/college-news/dc-embraces-nature-during-the-2015-campus-clean-up

Project Evergreen.org. “Environmental Benefits of Green Space.” http://projectevergreen.org/resources/environmental-benefits-of-green-space/.

Roden, Isabella. “Everyday Environmentalist: Go Green on Campus.” http://www.nature.org/greenliving/gogreen/everydayenvironmentalist/go-green-on-campus.xml.

University of Western Ontario. “Sustainability: Campus Master Plan.” http://sustainability.uwo.ca/initiatives/buildings_green_space/campus_master_plan.html.