Unfortunately the article doesn't link to the actual results. But from the article I gather that the study focussed on 11 intro courses in life and environmental sciences, and found that the "Median-centered grades were significantly correlated with the residence type in which the students spent most of their childhood; a greater proportion of students who came from a more rural setting were earning higher grades, on average, than students who were coming from more urban settings"
Not surprisingly, students who reported being uninterested in the course "performed profoundly worse."
The author goes on to suggest ways to make intro courses more hands-on and less talk-to, which may help. Or maybe not.
Oh well. I suspect the "uninterested" aspect would drive the differences, and that people who grew up playing with the wild would be less "uninterested" than those for whom it was abstract.
It probably doesn't have anything to do with mental stimulation, or the practice of hands-on learning (even important in math), or just being well-off enough to be able to live where there's land.
Pity. It would have made such an excellent excuse. "Come in and finish your homework!" "But Ma, you want me to go into STEM, don't you?"
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There could also be a selection bias, of families who stay closer to hands-on environments having better spatial skills.
Of course, I believe everything environmental is just disguised genetics these days.
Off topic. Engineerlite and I mentioned you at men's beer night tonight. It was a spiritual formation vs politics discussion I think you would have enjoyed.
That sounds like fun.
They sent me off to private school when I was 8 years old. I was the littlest kid in the school and was picked on extensively. We had a lovely location in the Ontario woods and they became my sanctuary. I used to wander in the bush by myself whenever I could.
My most memorable nightmare had some force take over my parents and the rest of the humans in the area. I snuck out at night and ran, pursued by the force, into the dark woods at the end of the road. I was safe there. It had no power in the woods.
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