plants

A study from Studente et al. (2016) aimed to investigate the impact that live plants, the colour green, and views of nature have on visual and verbal creativity within a classroom setting. Visual creativity usually refers to the production of things like drawings, paintings, and photographs, while verbal creativity refers to the production of written and spoken words. The participants in this study were 108 business students from a British university. The participants within the control group worked in a classroom with no plants present and blinds that were closed to block any views to plants and natural settings outside. The first experimental group worked in a classroom with live plants and windows with views of a green area outside. The second experimental group worked in a classroom with no plants and closed blinds, but were given creativity tasks on green paper. The results of the study clearly showed that classroom features such as plants can enhance creativity among students. Views of nature, live plants, and the use of the colour green all led to increased visual creativity. These variables did not seem to have an effect on verbal creativity (Studente et al., 2016).

Najafi and Keshmiri (2018) conducted a study to investigate the impact of indoor plants in a classroom on the happiness of female highschool students. The study included 384 female high school students who were part of a pretest-posttest design and a control group. The students were randomly divided into intervention and control groups, with six classes (approximately 192 students) in each group. For a pretest, each group completed a demographic questionnaire and the Oxford Happiness Inventory (OHI) scale. Potted plants were placed in the classroom of the experimental group for 12 weeks and then the OHI was completed by both the groups as a posttest. Pre-test mean happiness scores were very similar for both groups, with scores of 41.17 and 39.50 for the intervention and control group, respectively. After the 12-week intervention, the post-test OHI showed an increase in the mean happiness score from 41.17 to 55.58 in the intervention group who had plants added to their classroom. The control group saw a much smaller increase from 39.50 to 41.17. The results support the idea that incorporating indoor plants into the classroom setting can have a positive effect on the happiness of female high school students.

Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) refers to the environmental quality of a building and how it relates to the health of the building’s occupants. Air quality is one major facet of IEQ, along with things such as lighting, temperature, and space management. All these factors play a significant role in student satisfaction with their learning environments (Jamaludin et al., 2017). A common pollutant found in indoor environments is VOC (Volatile Organic Compound). Previous research has suggested that plants can be used to create better air quality through reduced air pollution. Jamaludin et al. (2017) demonstrated that the placement of indoor plants in classrooms for two weeks decreased the level of relative humidity, CO2, and VOC.

A study from Kim et al. (2020) showed a connection between indoor plant placement in the classroom, air quality, and the attention capacity of students. 70 sixth-grade students were the participants of a study examining the impact of indoor plant placement on classrooms in two elementary schools in Seoul, South Korea. Students were separated into two groups; one group occupied classrooms without any indoor plants, while the other group were in classrooms that incorporated indoor plants into the environment. The intervention took place for 12 weeks. After this period of time, the classrooms with indoor plants had lower concentrations of airborne contaminants and more constant air temperature, relative humidity, and CO2.

The study from Kim et al. (2020) also showed that the subjects within the classrooms showed improved attention capacity.