Turns out, a bit of a green thumb can help fight the blues. For teachers looking to improve their classroom environment and boost their students鈥� wellbeing鈥攁nd even their own鈥攖here is a simple yet powerful aid: houseplants.
You may already have them in your classroom or home, but you may not be aware of the . There鈥檚 even research that shows they鈥檙e specifically beneficial to students, said Melinda Knuth, an assistant professor of horticultural science at North Carolina State University.
鈥淭here鈥檚 been evidence to show that plants help us by decreasing our stress and anxiety as well as increasing our creativity, reducing our cortisol levels in our saliva in both educational and work settings,鈥� she said. (Cortisol is the primary stress hormone produced by the body.) 鈥淪ettings that have both windows and plants or either, these create an environment that is friendlier, more collegial, and leads to less likelihood of people calling out sick.鈥�
Additional studies have found that K-12 students鈥� , , and when they have plants in the classroom.
But how many indoor plants, exactly, does one need to achieve these benefits? Science doesn鈥檛 have an answer to that yet, Knuth said. But she is in the process of studying this very question to determine whether you need one, five, or a jungle of plants to reap the benefits of indoor plants.
In her experiment, Knuth is using (we kid you not) math problems that get progressively harder, paired with jarring noises, to stress out study participants, measuring the cortisol levels in their saliva before and after the math quiz. After participants hit 鈥減eak stress,鈥� Knuth tests how exposure to houseplants affects their cortisol levels.
Now, you may be thinking you鈥檇 like to get some plants for your classroom, but you don鈥檛 know which ones will thrive in the particular environment of a K-12 classroom.
Well, we鈥檝e got you covered. Education Week鈥檚 social media team asked teachers on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram to share their favorite classroom plants. Here are some of their suggestions:
鈥淓arly childhood background here. For inside, rubber plants are generally easy to keep alive and look nice. If you have really little ones, be sure to cover the dirt so it鈥檚 unreachable.鈥�
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鈥淪pider plants. They鈥檙e supposed to be good for filtering and cleaning the air.鈥�
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鈥淶Z plant and pothos. I don鈥檛 have any right now, though, because I don鈥檛 have any windows.鈥�
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鈥淏amboo! Give them enough water and they don鈥檛 need windows.鈥�
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鈥淚 have two neon pothos, a lemon lime corn plant, a snake plant, and UFO plants! I keep grow lights on my pothos and corn plants. Lucky to have two windows with plenty of light for the others.鈥�
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鈥淐hristmas cactus and an orchid (love it when they bloom), Purple Heart, spider plant, jade.鈥�
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It is very important that teachers stay attuned to whether their classroom plants are aggravating students鈥� allergies. A couple of ways to head off that concern is to avoid plants that flower, keep plants in well-draining pots, and don鈥檛 over water them because too much water fuels mold growth.
A few teachers also recommended fake plants鈥攁lbeit jokingly. Although that might be better than nothing, research has found that real plants are better at boosting people鈥檚 mood and reducing stress.
And while some teachers reported having success with succulents and cacti because they don鈥檛 require a lot of water, that wasn鈥檛 true for all teachers. We鈥檒l leave you with this adorable anecdote shared with Education Week on :
鈥淚 had some very neglected succulents in my classroom until one day one of my homeroom kids was like, 鈥榶ou know what, I can鈥檛 watch this anymore, I鈥檓 taking these,鈥� and he gathered them all up and took them home, and I couldn鈥檛 argue. I hope they had a better life with him.鈥�
