How Green Spaces and Outdoor Learning Boost Student Mental Health

Did you know that studies show children with attention deficits concentrate better after a walk in the park? In fact, some children are able to triple their attention when learning outdoors. Plus, contact with nature, even simply visually, improves teens’ ability to handle stress and can even lessen depression symptoms.

MCPS knows that learning outdoors is good for children and is working to install outdoor classrooms at several schools. Twinbrook Elementary School, for example, was named in 2025 as one of America’s Healthiest Schools, in part due to its outdoor classroom and hydroponics system. which support students' social and emotional needs.

At the high school level, other green initiatives serve a specialized role in targeted student support. Virginia Twombley, Resource Teacher for Special Education in the Enhanced Social Emotional Support Education Services (E-SESES) program at Magruder High School, highlights how their dedicated greenhouse program helps students:

“Our Greenhouse program has provided vulnerable, fragile kids with the opportunity to engage with living plants. They watch them grow from seeds into delicate sprouts and nurture them into stronger, healthier flowers, vegetables and plants. Kids see the results of their efforts and feel a sense of pride, accomplishment, and success.”

Beyond fostering pride and achievement, Twombley notes that the environment provides therapeutic benefits and lasting coping skills: “At the same time, there is a calm and serenity in working with plants in the greenhouse that helps reduce anxiety. Many of our students have taken it further and started growing plants (and productive coping strategies) at home, discovering a new appreciation for connecting with living things.”

Here’s to supporting student mental health through green spaces, indoors and out!

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