Annotated Bibliography

Leo Boostrom

Andrea Zehentner

4/9/2021
Kids Who Feel Connected with Nature Are Happier -- and Better-Behaved,
www.parentingscience.com/kids-connected-with-nature.html.

The main arguments of this article are that there are many benefits of young children

being connected with nature and going outside . Those benefits being improvements in mental,

physical, behavioral, social, and overall awareness to what is around them. The article describes

many reasons as to why young children being connected to nature or going out and experiencing

nature is good for them, both as children and as the adults they grow into. Children tend to

develop stronger senses of empathy towards others and a stronger desire to help others in need.

Interacting with and being in nature can also relieve stress and help children feel happier. It was

generally shown that children who feel they are connected to nature felt happier and were more

well-behaved than children who feel that they are not connected to nature or that had tendencies

to stay inside.

This is a useful source because it combines the results of multiple studies done on the

effect that being connected to nature has on children, both in the long-term and the short-term,

from the perspectives of the children themselves and their parents. I believe this source is reliable

as it has a list of citations used at the bottom of the webpage as well as many different in text

quotes and examples to further support their claims. Seeing as the article has multiple sources

cited at the end of the page and includes various rebuttals to what could be considered opposing

arguments or facts, I think that this article is quite objective. There is not much sign of personal,

political, or informational bias within the article itself, this can be seen through the consistent use

of statistics, both in favor of the argument and against it, throughout the article. The goal of this

source is to show that there is proof to the benefits of children being connected to nature and to
suggest ways parents can encourage their children to be more connected to nature and express it

how they choose to.

This source fits into my research because I’m doing my project on planning an art contest

or event centered around what wildlife children see at home or around them to get them to be

more aware of the wildlife and nature around them at all times. This source was helpful for me

because I feel I can use a lot of the points made here to support the reason as to why I chose this

to be my final project. It showed me statistics and some new information that I hadn’t known

before reading this article, an example of this being that I didn’t know that spending extra time

outdoors and in nature would help children develop stronger bones due to the natural vitamin D

from the sun. This source shapes my understanding because while I knew being aware of nature

and being among it was beneficial to not just young children but to almost anyone, I didn’t know

the details in the ways that it was beneficial. I certainly did not know that spending time in nature

as a young child can make one more likely to have a heightened sense of empathy and caring

than their peers who may not spend that much time outside. I can use this source in my research

project because it is a good source but also because it cites various different studies and articles

that could further help me in supporting my own points and ideas when coming up with the

information for my final project. It has not changed the way I think about my project that much,

but it makes me feel that I have a better chance at conveying the benefits of young children

paying attention to and interacting with nature. It also made me think that I could potentially

speak about how I felt quite connected to nature, and still do, when I was a young child and use

examples of how it positively effected me and my development. I believe that this will be a very

good source for me to use in my final project as it has multiple sources of its own and I can find

ways to combine it with my own experiences.