Natural Stress Reduction?

The Effect of Nature Settings on Cortisol Levels in Teachers and Students

What is the effect of a simulated nature room and
an outside nature setting on cortisol levels in
teachers?

Hypothesis Exp.1
I hypothesize that spending time in the simulated
nature room, and the outside nature setting will cause
cortisol levels in teachers to lower over a 4 weekday
period from Monday to Thursday. If teachers are
given a certain period of time to relax than in a
calming nature setting than this should lower their
cortisol levels.

Purpose Experiment 1
In a report about the most stressful jobs (ABC News, 2014,) teaching is ranked as the fourth most stressful. Chronic stress
that a teacher may be experiencing leads to many health problems such as hypertension, heart disease, depression, and
other stress related illnesses. So what happens to our teachers throughout the day? Do they get the stress relief that they
need after a long day of teaching? And how can we possibly have our teachers feel less stress? In other studies (J.Lee,
2010) different natural environments were shown to decrease stress. This project has been put underway to see if there is
a more natural and easy way for teachers to become less stressed after their school day. This project is also looking to see
if there is a non medication method to relieve and reduce stress from a person such as a stressed out teachers. This
solution for a teacher could later lead to being a solution for other stressful jobs as well.

Experimental Design Exp. 1

Nine teachers were chosen randomly and asked to produce a sample of their saliva at the end of their school day for four
days from Monday to Thursday. The following week the same nine teachers will be exposed to an outdoors nature area for
ten minutes after their school day. Once the ten minutes are up they were then asked again to produce a sample of their
saliva, this ran for four days Monday through Thursday. The following week the teachers were exposed to a simulated
nature room, where there are plants placed around the teachers, a created view on the walls with trees, and an ambiance
of running water in the background. The teachers were exposed to the room for ten minutes after their school day. They
then were asked to produce a saliva sample. Note that teachers are able to enter at the same time and interact with one
another. Once each sample was taken they were put into separate containers that are labeled and centrifuged at 1550 g
for 5 minutes to get the large pieces in the samples to move toward the bottom so that a clear sample is put into the well
plates. 200L was then added to the samples in the well and incubated for 60 minutes. After the 60 minutes the plate is
washed with a wash solution three times. 200L of a Substrate Solution is added to each well and incubated for 30
minutes. To stop the reaction 100L of Stop Solution is added to each well. To determine the absorbency levels 450 nm
were shone through by a plate reader to read the amount of absorbency.

Abstract

Question Experiment 2

A handful of studies have looked into how time in nature lowers baseline stress levels in people, and that saliva cortisol
concentration is an appropriate way to measure baseline stress. This project looked at two new contexts, to see if
there was a significant way to lower cortisol levels in teachers and adolescents. For the first experiment three settings
and nine teachers were used. The three settings were: a no exposure to any nature setting, an outside setting, and a
simulated nature setting. The nine teachers were then exposed to the outside setting and the simulated nature setting,
for ten minutes after their school day for four days. After each of the days saliva samples were collected then
measured for cortisol using a Competitive ELISA. When the results came in they showed that the trends were very
much the same between the different settings. The means and deviations from the mean were also very closely
related, with a lot of overlap. This means that short term exposures to the different settings did not have a significant
effect on the cortisol levels in teachers.
The second experiment was conducted to see if regular exposure to nature through a high school class, would lower
cortisol levels in students taking the class. Adolescents in an Outdoor Explorations class were compared to
adolescents who dont have a class that allowed them time to be exposed to nature regularly. Students in both groups
were asked to provide a saliva sample in a window of time between 7:30am and 8:30am. The cortisol concentration
were then tested also through a Competitive ELISA. The data showed that there was a significant difference between
the two groups, and that having a class that allows a student to be exposed to nature regularly have a significantly
lower baseline cortisol level.

Data
Experiment 1
Salivary Cortisol
Concentrations(nmol/L)

Question Experiment 1

Variation of Cortisol Levels for Teachers

6
5
4
3

1
0

No Exposure

Outside

Simulated

Variation of Cortisol Levels for Students

Salivary Cortisol
Concentrations(nmol/L)

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Independent Variable: Exposure to each of the two settings.

Dependent Variable: Cortisol Levels.
Constants: Competitive ELISA Cortisol Saliva Test, amount of time in each setting, experimenting period, time of day.
Control: One week period testing Cortisol levels that are not exposed to the nature room.

Background

Cortisol: Cortisol is a hormone that our body produces when we are in a state of stress. The Hormone is secreted by the
adrenal gland that is right above our kidneys. The method that was used to collect each subjects cortisol levels was
through a Competitive Elisa kit, in which uses salivary samples, and targets the hormone Cortisol.
Competitive ELISA: Competitive ELISA can be used to target many different Proteins, the Competitive ELISA that was
used in the project targeted only the Cortisol protein in the sample. Enzyme Conjugate: Contains Cortisol that is bonded
with an enzyme.
Substrate Solution: A substrate that is added to the solution to react with the enzymes on the bonded cortisol proteins
changing the color of the solution blue to different shades of blue according to the concentration of the enzyme conjugate
present.
Stop Solution: A strong acid that is added to the solution to stop the reaction between the enzyme conjugated proteins
and the substrate solution. This turning the blue shades of color to different shades of yellow.
How Cortisol is used in the body: Stress
triggers the Hypothalamus to release a hormone
called CHR (corticotropin releasing hormone).
This hormone then triggers the adrenal glands to
release Cortisol into the blood stream. This
cortisol then gets distributed around the body to
notify the body of this increase of stress.

Independent Variable: Different amounts of exposure to the outdoors in their classes.

Dependent Variable: Cortisol Levels.
Constants: Competitive ELISA Cortisol Saliva Test.
Control: Students whom do not have a outdoors class.

Future Proposal
In future progress I would like to have more students participate in the second experiment. My time for the second
experiment was very short, and all data was collected in a total of 3 days. For more students I would need at least a week.
I would also like to collect averages from every student that would be tested to get a better reading of their overall cortisol
level. When creating the second experiment I wanted to compare a third variable, which is a normal PE class that does not
go out into nature for their activities. The third variable was not added to the experiment simply because the sample size
was too small, so in the future I would like to add this third variable.

10

Variables

Adolescents get stress too, stress in Adolescents can affect how they get along with others, it can affect their ability to
focus, think, learn and their emotional and physical health. These problems can relate to a term used called Nature
Deficit Disorder (NDD), in an age where most children are plugged in to technology we are seeing more children
spending less time in nature. Because our brains are hardwired to be in a more natural environment they may not be
ready to accept all the stimulation of technology. Some may be able to adapt, but those who dont will experience stress
related problems such as attention problems, obesity, anxiety, and depression (What Is Nature Deficit Disorder? Web. 23
Mar. 2015.). Chronic stress can ultimately persist to adult hood and create health problems such as hypertension, heart
disease, depression, and other stress related illnesses. This experiment will look at how adding a class to a students
schedule that allows the student long term exposure to nature, affects the students cortisol compared to a student who
does not get that exposure. Ultimately this experiment will see if there is a natural way to reduce stress levels in students.

Variables Experiment. 2

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Simulation Setting

Purpose Experiment. 2

9 students that had a class that exposes them to nature for approximately 2 to 3 hours every week, and 7 students who did
not have any classes that provide them exposure to nature were asked to provide a saliva sample. Each sample was taken in
the morning, in a window of time from 7:30 to 8:30 before any of their classes. Samples were then taken and went through
the competitive Elisa procedure as done in Experiment one to analyze cortisol levels.

16

Outdoor setting

I hypothesize that students who have a class where

they are exposed to nature regularly during a long
term time span, will have lower cortisol levels than
students who have no classes that expose them to
nature, because time in nature has been shown to
lower cortisol levels in some other studies.

Experimental Design Exp. 2

Experiment 2

Will students in an Outdoors Exploration

class who regularly spend time in Nature
have lower cortisol levels than those who do
not?

Hypothesis Exp. 2

8
6

Bibliography

4
2
0

No Exposure

Outdoor Explorations

Data Analysis

In T-tests that were performed pairing the different rooms, each showed insignificant differences between the different
settings. In a paired T-test between the no exposure setting with a sample size of 30, and the outdoors setting with a
sample size of 20, the P- value was 0.89, meaning that there is a 89% chance that the outside setting causes no
significant change in cortisol levels. In the paired T-test comparing the no exposure setting having a sample size of 30
and the Simulation setting with a sample size of 23, the P-value was 0.71, having a 71% chance that the simulation
setting causes no significant change in cortisol levels. And in a paired T-test between the Outdoors setting with a
sample size of 20, and the Simulation setting having a sample size of 23, the P-value for a two tailed set was 0.81,
with a 81% chance that the simulation setting and the outdoors setting are closely related to each other when
comparing the cortisol levels.

In T-tests that were preformed pairing the Outdoors Explorations class where the students have exposure to nature
(sample size:7) , and the No Exposure which are students who do no have any class that allow them to go out in
nature regularly (sample size:9) assuming unequal variances, the P-value was 0.0373, meaning that the chance if the
two variables being the same is 3.37%, causing the differences to be significant.

Conclusion

In conclusion exposing teachers to a short term amount of time in a nature setting did not affect their cortisol levels.
Through the data, the means for all environments were very much the same, this means that exposing teachers to a
setting of nature for a short time exposure does not lower their cortisol, but it also means that it does not increase their
cortisol levels. In the different settings there is much overlap between the distribution of the levels of cortisol. This
further proves that over all the short term exposure to nature environments is not an effective way to lower levels of
cortisol in the teachers. A second experiment was then preformed with students, and the effect of a long term
exposure.

Students who have a class that allows long term exposure to nature have lower cortisol levels than students who do
not have a class that allows long term exposure to nature. Students who have a class that allows them to be exposed
to nature long term, have a significantly lower cortisol level than those who do not have such a class. What can be
concluded in this experiment is that long term exposure to nature is effective in lowering Cortisol levels. With this
conclusion what can also be said is that a preventative measure for stress in students is to encourage a class that will
allow them to be exposed to nature on a regular basis over a long period of time, as well as encourage schools to have
a class that allow exposure to the outdoors and nature.

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