Free Booklets Available On Classroom Acoustics

According to classroom acoustics, a publication of the technical committee on architectural acoustics of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), speech intelligibility among listeners with normal hearing is about 75 percent or less in many of today’s classrooms. This means that listeners miss one out of four words read to them off a list. Adults and older children can use their experience to “fill in the gaps” and make sense of what’s being said. Younger children who are just exploring language, ESL students, the learning disabled, and the hard of hearing do not have that luxury.

That number of hard-of-hearing students is remarkably large and flexible. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that up to 15 percent of school-age children suffer from temporary hearing loss at any time. Allergies, ear infections, and colds or other forms of congestion mean that today’s competent hearer could be tomorrow’s hard-of-hearing student.

The good news is that making classrooms acoustically sound is neither difficult nor expensive. A bit of forethought, a small upgrade in materials, and acoustical enhancement is all it takes to make classrooms and other core learning spaces better. “The best way to solve acoustics problems is to prevent them beforehand, not correct them after the fact,” continues the publication. “Renovation of poorly designed classrooms is much more expensive.”

Thankfully, more and more states are implementing ANSI/ASA S12.60-2002, Acoustical Performance Criteria, Design Requirements and Guidelines for Schools. Consistent with long-standing recommendations for good practice in educational settings, the new standard sets maximum limits for background noise (35 decibels) and reverberation time (0.6 to 0.7 seconds) for unoccupied classrooms.

To help architects, planners create learning spaces that meet the guidelines, the ASA has published three booklets on Classroom Acoustics topics that can be downloaded for free on their website, www.acousticalsociety.org/classroom-acoustics.

This article originally appeared in the School Planning & Management June 2018 issue of Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • Case Study Highlights Texas District’s Campus Security Upgrades

    The Taft Independent School District near Corpus Christi, Texas, recently partnered with Intech Southwest Services to revamp its campus security technology system, according to a news release. Intech has released a case study on its website detailing the process that advanced the district’s technology by more than 20 years in less than three weeks.

  • Longwood University Selects Builder for $73M Performing Arts Center

    Longwood University in Farmville, Va., recently announced that it has selected Swedish construction company Skanska as the builder of its new performing arts center, according to online news. The project involves the demolition of the current building and constructing a new, 64,500-square-foot facility.

  • Tennessee State University Gains Approval for New Engineering Facility

    Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tenn., recently announced that it has received approval from the Tennessee State Building Commission to build a new engineering building on campus, according to a university news release. The 70,000-square-foot, $50-million facility will play home to the university’s engineering programs and the Applied & Industrial Technology program.

  • i-PRO, NovoTrax Partner for New School Emergency Response Solution

    i-PRO Americas, Inc., which manufactures edge computing cameras, recently announced a partnership with NovoTrax, provider of end-to-end life safety and mass notification solutions, to address gaps in emergency response workflows at K–12 schools, according to a news release.

Digital Edition