Clear communication in elementary school classrooms is crucial for successful learning environments.  The current ANSI S12.60 Standard on classroom acoustics recommends specific unoccupied background noise levels and reverberation times for classroom spaces.  However, the existing research does not show a consistent connection between the classroom acoustics parameters specified in this building standard and student achievement.  This research seeks to determine what acoustical conditions should be attained in elementary school classrooms to optimize student achievement.  Acoustical measurements have been gathered in a range of elementary school classrooms (125 total) in the Council Bluffs and Papillion-La Vista Public School Districts.  Classroom acoustic parameters from these measurements are being correlated to the standardized achievement test scores from students in the surveyed classrooms.  The preliminary results from this research suggest that elementary student reading comprehension may be negatively impacted by higher unoccupied background noise levels.  This talk will describe the classroom measurements, acoustical parameters, and data analysis procedures used in this study.

 

Presenter: Lauren M. Ronsse is a PhD candidate in the Architectural Engineering Program at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln.  She has conducted research in various areas of acoustics including perceptual impacts of noise on humans, speech intelligibility in rooms, and archeological acoustics.  Lauren is the current Chair of the National Acoustical Society of America Student Council and is a recipient of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.