Building (design) basics

Several speakers at the school symposium addressed school design from the perspective of the individual classroom.

Any conversation about the impact of school climate on learning needs to consider the physical aspect. As important as good soil is to a farmer, a good learning environment requires:

• comfort (furniture that encourages good posture and in which it is possible to sit for extended periods of time. It should be noted that some of the best classroom furniture I’ve experienced has been made primarily of plastic);
• natural, evenly diffused lighting that eliminates glare;
• temperature controls;
• good room acoustics.

In spite of its direct impact on classroom instruction, good room acoustics have often been an afterthought in building design - but that’s changing. Recently developed ANSI 12.60 standards require that classrooms have a background noise level of less than 35db, with a minimum difference of 15db between the level of the speaker and the background. The choice of surface materials and HVAC systems are the two key components that affect sound quality.

Except in auditoriums, or when the teacher is especially soft-spoken, sound amplification systems are not the answer. If room acoustics are poor to begin with – a lot of hard surfaces that cause sound to reverberate - an amplification system only serves to amplify the problem.

One strategy is carpeting.  The acoustical advantages of carpeting are obvious; a major concern has been the affect on air quality.

Granted, one has consider the source, but a spokesman for the carpet industry argued that much of the evidence against carpeting is the result of poor cleaning products (many of which act as a glue for dust, etc.) and inadequate or poorly maintained equipment. It would not surprise me if his claim turned out to be true: that many vacuum cleaners suck dirt out of the carpet only to release it right back into the air. A properly maintained carpet should act as an air filter. Something to think about..