Designing for the Senses

Course
Taste [6:55]
Designing spaces that allow some water and food in the library while students work alone or in teams especially late in the day, seems like a logical course to take. Their ability to collaborate and actively respond to others will be heightened.
Taste. The brain craves something besides novelty. It is glucose and water. When the brain does not have enough glucose and water in the blood fueling it, its response is sleepiness and lethargy. David Sussa, in his book, How the Brain Learns explains, "Eating a moderate portion of food containing glucose, fruit is an excellent source, can boost the performance and accuracy of working memory, attention, and motor function, as well as improve long-term recognition memory. Water, also essential for healthy brain activity, is required to move neuron signals through the brain. A lower concentration of water diminishes the rate and efficiency of the signals. Designing spaces that allow some water and food in the library while students work alone or in teams especially late in the day, seems like a logical course to take. Their ability to collaborate and actively respond to others will be heightened. As zones within new libraries become more collaborative, more flexible, and adaptive, it's time to consider access to colorful food and water. Noisy bags and chips, cans of soda, and caramel lattes from the school cafe are messy and sticky to clean up. If the library hosts a trendy new cafe, provide fresh or dried fruit and water as a better brain food, the sensory stimulus to students of all ages will increase attention, participation, and improve memory."

In the entertaining book, Brain Rules, by John Medina, he advocates for children to have recess at least twice a day, and an active physical education program. He states, "Physically fit children identify visual stimuli much faster than sedentary ones. They appear to concentrate better. Brain activation studies show that children and adolescents who are fit allocate more cognitive resources to a task and do so for longer periods of time." Simply stated, movement sparks creative problem solving. Movement gets glucose to the brain faster, but that is not why I bring up exercise under taste. It is because exercise and nutritious food work in tandem.

Teaching children to grow nutritious food in a school garden can simultaneously provide exercise while enriching a hands-on learning experience in another curriculum learning area such as science. A view of the garden from the classroom or library window is both seasonally interesting and tranquil. In our school district several summer school classes help maintain our large school garden, and the produce goes to our local food pantry until classes resume in the fall. The students participate in a community service program receive an hour of outdoor exercise in the sun, enjoy getting their hands dirty, and link it to a complimentary science course. It is important for children to understand where food comes from, its nutritional value, and experience a diverse palate of taste. When they watch and tend their own plants, it fosters the natural curiosity about the food, how to prepare it, and its taste.

Dr. Jennifer Sacheck, an associate professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition at Tufts University said, "Foods primal value is the pleasure principle; how it tastes and the enjoyment we get from consuming it." She also is extremely concerned about the dead or processed food we consume. It has almost no nutritional value for building brain or muscle tissue. Low-density, simple-carbohydrate food like white bread, pasta, process foods, or fast food is loaded with solid fats and added sugars. They literally have an addictive effect on the brain, and initiate a negative craving cycle. They are not as nutrition dense as vegetables, fruits, and whole grains, so students will be hungry more frequently. This cycle of low-density food, eating too much too often, and lack of exercise is fueling childhood obesity, lack of concentration, and underachievement in school. The movement to improve school lunch programs is a losing battle if it is not complemented by active educational programs to improve student understanding of food, and to appreciate the taste of real food.

Library design overlooking a school garden with featured accents like images of real food is a creative concept of space design. Visual promotion of resources for cross-curriculum projects in food science is a wonderful way to involve students and teachers in the space.

Another design thought came to me at Penzey's Spice Shop recently. It is a space rich in the history of spice, promotes diverse geography, and savory tastes. Ambient flavors spread out around the room and opulent colors suggest a sensory rich theme for a library renovation. It would dramatically illustrate how uninteresting white table salt is as America's dominant spice. Artwork and images of herbs and spices are an easy first step but painting a room in the shades of herbs and spices would be much more sophisticated. Actually having real plants growing in the library to taste and smell would even be more savory. I can't tell you how much more inviting the taste of mint green leafs would be than painting a wall pale mint green. Or really jazz the room up with bold colors like curry and red cloves, which brings me to a wonderful, peaceful smell of lavender on your fingers, but we will have to wait until the next section to experience that orgy. Let's finish this lesson by emphasizing a couple of thoughts.

You can design an environment that supports the actual consumption of nutritious brain-rich food, which sends a positive yet subliminal message to students. It is also better if you eliminate sticky, dead food like soda, candy, and baked goods. Create an environment that supports the whole student. Plus this tasty environment advocates for other forms of student intelligence like spacial, bodily-kinetic, and naturalistic.
Taste in the Library

Context:

Proper nutrition and hydration are important for optimal learning, as is movement and exercise. Benefits of a school garden are discussed, suggesting how the library can be connected to a garden project.

Instructions:

Sullivan gives many ideas for connecting the library to a garden and/or nutritious and healthy lifestyles. Design a plan for your library that:

  1. connects the library with a school garden;
  2. incorporates live plants into the library space; and/or
  3. allows healthy eating in the library space.

In your plan, be sure to include a draft budget and a list of resources that you will need, including space, materials, and people/experts. Outline lessons and promotion that might be needed to make this project successful.

MLA Citation

Collins, Karla. "Designing for the Senses: Taste in the Library." School Library Connection, December 2024, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/1985344?learningModuleId=1980800&topicCenterId=2247903.

Entry ID: 2132722

About the Author

Margaret L. Sullivan

Margaret L. Sullivan, MA, is an independent consultant and principal at Library Resource Group, LLC. She holds a master's degree in communication arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her published works include AASL's Library Spaces for 21st Century Learners: A Planning Guide for Creating New School Library Concepts along with articles on space planning in School Library Journal, Knowledge Quest, Teacher Librarian, and American School & University. For 28 years, Sullivan was an executive at the former Highsmith Inc., a leading supplier to schools and libraries, ending her career there as director of merchandising and marketing.

MLA Citation

Sullivan, Margaret L. "Designing for the Senses. Taste [6:55]." School Library Connection, ABC-CLIO, November 2015, schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/1985344?learningModuleId=1980800&topicCenterId=2247903.

View all citation styles

https://schoollibraryconnection.com/Content/Course/1985344?learningModuleId=1980800&topicCenterId=2247903

Entry ID: 1985344