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Articles, Research Studies, and Books to Support Nature Journaling

ByKate Righter

We say that nature journaling is good for you and good for your students, but where’s the evidence behind these claims? There is a lot of research out there about the importance of nature journaling, art, writing, and spending time in nature.

Articles and Research Studies

Note: Items with an asterisks * require access to that database to view the full study

How Nature Journaling Helps My Students Feel at Home
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_nature_journaling_helps_my_students_feel_at_home
A place-based educator in California invites his students to spend time in, observe, and document the wild nature around them.

Research studies referenced in article:

From Screens to Sunshine: Rescuing Children’s Outdoor Playtime in the Digital Era
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09731342241229845

*Interdisciplinary nature journaling improves mood and helps build connection in middle school students
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13504622.2024.2405901
“Results indicated a positive shift in moods, reduced stress, and enhanced feelings of self-valuation and connection to the natural world. The activity fits into New York State English Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, Math, and Art standards, emphasizing the feasibility and adaptability of environmental education activities across disciplines.”

Summary here: https://research.childrenandnature.org/research/nature-journaling-supports-students-well-being-and-environmental-awareness/

Why Kids Should Nature Journal at All Grade Levels
https://www.edutopia.org/article/benefits-nature-journaling
A 2023 review makes a strong case that hands-on observation of natural phenomena has both academic and psychological benefits.

Research study referenced in article:

*Nature Journaling in the High School Classroom
https://online.ucpress.edu/abt/article-abstract/85/4/187/195977/Nature-Journaling-in-the-High-School-Classroom?redirectedFrom=fulltext
“Nature journaling is an effective way for life science teachers to get adolescents outside and incorporate nature studies into their lessons. Students engaged in regular, sustained nature journaling could experience an increase in literacy and critical thinking skills, an increase in understanding and connections to their native landscapes, and a decline in anxiety and depression.”

Nature journaling provides differing benefits to adults, youth
https://www.psu.edu/news/health-and-human-development/story/nature-journaling-provides-differing-benefits-adults-youth
Researchers found the outdoor recreational activity can help adults find fellowship, youth experience wildlife up close

Research study referenced in article:

Community nature journaling: wellbeing and learning outcomes for adult and youth participants
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14729679.2024.2425933
“This research suggests that nature journaling has the potential to mitigate social isolation among older adults, while fostering a deep sense of awareness of the natural world for younger generations.”

Nature journaling: a space for student sensemaking regarding the crosscutting concepts
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s43031-026-00156-0
“With this case we demonstrate the affordances of nature journaling for supporting sensemaking of concepts that cut across many of the scientific disciplines.”

Pedagogical implementations of nature journaling in connecting with the natural world: A scoping review
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1871187126001239
“Nature journaling shows strong potential as a pedagogical tool, promoting experiential and reflective learning, interdisciplinarity, scientific skills, creativity, mindfulness, and emotional engagement.”

Research Studies: Drawing, Writing, and Nature Experiences

Neural insights into observational drawing: A longitudinal resting state functional connectivity study using 7 t MRI
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0278262625001162
“Practicing observational drawing art produces positive changes in brain functioning highlighting its potential role in therapeutic applications.”

Handwriting but not typewriting leads to widespread brain connectivity: a high-density EEG study with implications for the classroom
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10853352/
“Our findings suggest that the spatiotemporal pattern from visual and proprioceptive information obtained through the precisely controlled hand movements when using a pen, contribute extensively to the brain’s connectivity patterns that promote learning.”

Promoting Successful Cognitive Aging Through Observational Drawing: A Feasibility Study
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12102519/
“Our study illustrates that drawing skills can be improved in older adulthood and highlights the potential of visual arts training in promoting cognition and wellbeing.”

*The Surprisingly Powerful Influence of Drawing on Memory
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0963721418755385
“…we have shown that gains are greater from drawing than other known mnemonic techniques, such as semantic elaboration, visualization, writing, and even tracing to-be-remembered information. We propose that drawing improves memory by promoting the integration of elaborative, pictorial, and motor codes, facilitating creation of a context-rich representation.”

“It was like I was not a person, it was like I was the nature”: The impact of arts-in-nature experiences on the wellbeing of children living in areas of high deprivation
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272494423001202?via%3Dihub
“The qualitative and arts-based methods suggested that the arts-in-nature intervention supported children’s mental and emotional wellbeing through four key elements: a) self-confidence and self-esteem; b) development of agency; c) slowliness and calmness; and d) connectedness with nature.”

Children with attention deficits concentrate better after walk in the park
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1087054708323000
“Twenty minutes in a park setting was sufficient to elevate attention performance relative to the same amount of time in other settings. These findings indicate that environments can enhance attention not only in the general population but also in ADHD populations. “Doses of nature” might serve as a safe, inexpensive, widely accessible new tool in the tool kit for managing ADHD symptoms.”

Impacts of Outdoor Environmental Education on Teacher Reports of Attention, Behavior, and Learning Outcomes for Students With Emotional, Cognitive, and Behavioral Disabilities
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/education/articles/10.3389/feduc.2018.00046/full
“Quantitative data revealed teachers perceived students had significantly improved attention spans and decreased disruptive behaviors when learning outdoors. Students in the treatment group maintained measures of nature of science, science efficacy and science grades, keeping in line with their peers in the control group.”

Books

Nature and the Mind: The Science of How Nature Improves Cognitive, Physical, and Social Well-Being By Marc Berman
“Berman draws on years of experimental research to explain how green spaces nurture attention, creativity, and mental health and why access to them is a matter of equity and necessity, not luxury.” (from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/connecting-neurons/202511/how-nature-restores-our-minds)

Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Save Lives by Daisy Fancourt
“…scientific evidence for the importance of integrating the arts into various aspects of daily life.”
(from https://www.journal.theippc.com/article/163691-book-review-art-cure-the-science-of-how-the-arts-save-lives)

Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross

Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv

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