ROHS science teacher on a mission to find the key to happiness 4,276 miles away

ROYAL OAK — David Barnett, a Royal Oak High School science teacher, recently embarked on a journey of more than 4,000 miles with the hopes of learning more about students’ mental health.

Barnett arrived in Helsinki on Jan. 17. He will be there throughout the rest of the 2024-2025 academic school year teaching, studying and researching.

Barnett was awarded a Fulbright Teacher Exchange award to Finland from the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board through the Fulbright Program.

“I’ve had an interest in doing something related to education abroad for quite a while,” Barnett said via email. “I have had friends do it in different capacities and it always seemed like a great opportunity for me.”

Barnett is among more than 800 U.S. citizens who are going abroad through the Fulbright Program.

“Fulbrighters engage in cutting-edge research and expand their professional networks, often continuing research collaborations started abroad and laying the groundwork for forging future partnerships between institutions,” as stated in a press release sent out by Royal Oak Schools.

The working title of Barnett’s project is “The Role of Environmental Education in Promoting Student Mental Health.” It is what landed him the trip abroad and guided him to wanting to do it in Finland.

To get considered for the Fulbright program an educator has to complete an application and propose a project, along with letters of recommendation, according to Barnett.

“There are three main factors that drew me to Finland, one, studying the environment is emphasized in their national curriculum, and two, they are annually rated among the happiest populations on Earth. I hope to explore connections between environmental education and student mental health,” he said.

According to Barnett’s project draft, his goal is to “study the curriculum and pedagogy in Finland as it relates to exosystems and the environment. ... Based on this research, I will strive to develop lessons that can be used by teachers in most any natural setting to promote access to outdoor education for all students.”

To support his research, Barnett said he will be visiting various schools in Finland, interviewing teachers and reading existing research related to his project. He will be working closely with an advisor, Sirpa Tani, from the University of Helsinki.

After the completion of his research and time in Finland, Barnett is hoping to make impacts on various levels of how educators view teaching in a natural setting, and spread the word on how that can affect students’ mental health.

“My biggest hope is that I’ll come away with some approaches that can be added to help students struggling with mental health,” he said via email. “Spending time learning about the environment, especially outdoors, seems like it can be one way to help students feel less anxious and more connected.”

Barnett said that he believes Finnish schools would have the best curriculum for learning about a subject like this.

According to an article by Johanna Järvinen-Taubert and Päivi Valtonen on otter-project.eu, Finland has a long tradition of “Education outside Classroom (EOC).”

“For decades it has been typical for Finnish education to utilize EOC in teaching,” it states. “Visits to museums, libraries, exhibitions, cultural events, and versatile workplaces have been part of schooling from early childhood education to upper secondary education for generations.”

The article goes on to state that nature can be a learning environment for not only the sciences, but math, art, geography, languages and more.

“To assume that the right type of learning can take place only in a well-structured classroom environment and according to the adult’s best thinking is to limit the power of available spaces and students’ potential,” the article states.

Barnett said he is most looking forward to spending time outdoors and bringing back the ideals of the Finnish people.

“Both in the educational context and in my free time, I’m looking forward to spending time outdoors,” he said. “I’m eager to see how teachers in a pretty cold climate do this.”

Barnett will be tracking his progress on his research and travels at instagram.com/mr.barnett_in_finland.

For more information on the Fulbright program, visit fulbrightprogram.org.