Back to All

Creating Less Barriers for Learning – Acoustics

Date 10.24.15 | Author: Jaime Sliker

Many factors make teaching and learning more challenging. As architects, our goal is to create spaces that enhance the teaching experience and not be an impediment to a student’s ability to learn. Indoor environmental quality[1] includes air quality, thermal comfort, lighting quality, acoustical quality, and ergonomics. Good indoor environmental quality enhances learning; poor IEQ is a barrier.

Granted acoustics is just a part of a range of factors affecting students’ ability to learn, but poor acoustics can amplify the challenges children face. Students come to school with a variety of special needs and conditions. These can range from temporary hearing loss from colds or ear infections, to learning disabilities such as ADHD or Asperger’s Syndrome. Even cultural barriers such as English as a second language can be amplified by poor acoustics. When a child fails to learn for whatever reason, education has failed that child. The physical classroom environment should not be a reason why a child does not learn.

How then does acoustics affect indoor environmental quality? At the simplest level, acoustics is the movement of sound from a source to a receiver. In a classroom we want the predominant sound source to be the teacher speaking and we want the receiver to be an attentive student. But many things get in the way of that ideal acoustic situation.

Sometimes you just can’t hear what the teacher is saying. The image below[2] gives you an indication of how sound travels in a classroom setting. Sound levels drop off quickly the further you are from the source. At a certain point the loudness of the teacher’s voice becomes less than the loudness of background noise, and Tomas can’t comprehend what the teacher is saying. When this happens, the classroom environment becomes a barrier to learning.

 

[1] Center for Disease Control and Prevention definition for IEQ; Indoor environmental quality (IEQ) is the quality of a building’s environment in relation to the health and wellbeing of those who occupy space within it.

[2] Image courtesy of the Institute for Enhanced Classroom Hearing; http://www.classroomhearing.org/

Next Blog

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

77 comments

  9. Cancer cells are subjected to a complex mechanical microenvironment that includes extracellular matrix compliance, alterations in local mechanical stress due to tumor mass expansion, and applied force from interactions with surrounding organs and body motion maximum dose of lasix

  28. Thanks for sharing this information. I really like your blog post very much. You have really shared a informative and interesting blog post with people..
    OKBet

  33. First of all, thank you for your post. safetoto Your posts are neatly organized with the information I want, so there are plenty of resources to reference. I bookmark this site and will find your posts frequently in the future. Thanks again ^^

  48. MEILLEUR GRATUIT 3D JEU PORNO VIDEO. 341.7k 100% 28sec 480p.

    The Best Toon Pussy. 282.8k 99% suck my cum famous cartoons sex comic sex anime cartoon adult
    cartoons family guy sex cartoons cartoon sex black sex cartoons sextoons old cartoons
    sex games cuckold cartoon sex toons xxx cartoons family sex cartoons x rated cartoons sex cartoons.

Subscribe to Spiezle

    © 2021 Spiezle Architectural Group Inc. | Disclaimer | Privacy Policy

    Website Design By Lounge Lizard