Do Plants Play a Part in Student Satisfaction?

Prior research in environmental psychology indicates that there is a relationship between plants, nature, and satisfaction.  Satisfaction of students is of importance across the grade levels.  Two studies were conducted concerning the effect of interaction with plant life on student satisfaction.  In the first study, a quasi-experimental nonequivalent control group design was used to determine how participation in garden labs would affect high school student satisfaction with school. Ecology students in the variable group participated in ten gardening labs during the semester.  Labs were centered on hands-on gardening activities that took place in the school greenhouse and garden.  The garden component was taught by the teacher in order to minimize bias that could result from a third party teaching the lab.  Students in the control group did not participate in the garden program that was offered as a part of the experiment.  Students in the variable group and a similar control completed a questionnaire prior to and after the time of participation in the garden labs.  Questionnaire items pertaining to student satisfaction with school, knowledge of and affinity for gardening were used for statistical analysis.  Random selection was not feasible for this study, and participants were a convenience sample based on teacher availability to participate.  The second study involved the development of a survey instrument that would be used to measure how much undergraduate students interact with plant life, gauge student satisfaction, and control for extraneous variables.  Survey results could be used to better provide services for undergraduate students that may increase student satisfaction. For the purposes of this survey, time spent interacting with plant life was broken into two groups.  Active interaction included activities where the individual has sought out plant-based activities, such as gardening.  Passive interaction with plants would included activities where the individual may not have desired a plant-based activity, but would be been in a “green” environment that has live plants, like walking outside and reading outdoors.  Pre-testing and a pilot test would be used to generate items pertaining to interaction with plant life for the population of interest.  The validated Brief Multidimensional Student Life Satisfaction Scale – College version was used to measure student satisfaction, in addition to questions that were focused on aspects of satisfaction with school.  Analysis of data for both studies was done with SPSS 20.