I was about to make the same point. Lack of ventilation. On this morning's local news (Portland Maine) there was a report about a local school where students were feeling ill, suffering nose bleeds and other ailments. CO2 levels were above 2000 ppm.
I can't help but agree. I taught a large class, 170 students in a freshmen level class, in a room with no windows, a single projector and a large screen. No matter what I would do, I lost the last two rows. There were not "dumb" students, or even disinterested ones overall, just distant in a brightly but badly lit room. The best thing to do in a class like this is to take them outside, but outside was next to a freeway and only the 20 closest students could hear a thing. No wonder students have nature deficit disorder, we build nature deficit classrooms.
What a horrid room! Not only beige and windowless, but without any of the biophilic patterns that can emotionally (at least) connect us to nature and natural systems and pacings.
This also remind me of the bland and featureless hospital rooms which, if they have windows, look out into parking lots.
How is it that we expect people to learn, to heal, to connect, to thrive in these spaces? Throw in plastic tables, chairs, flooring and vinyl wall papers and we’re dying in plastic bubbles, day by day.
Was also going to suggest logging CO2. When we create physical and social environments misaligned with how our physiologies evolved to operate most effectively (that also changes over the course of our lives), we create evolutionary mismatches impacting our performance and health.
If you're not already familiar with it, you might also check out Terrapin Green's research into biophilia and student outcomes (which relates in part, of course, to daylight and windows). I think it's included within their Economics of Biophilia publication (https://www.terrapinbrightgreen.com/report/eob-2/) and they might have a separate publication just on schools, but I couldn't find it just now.
Have you logged CO2, temperature, and relative humidity during class?
I will take my CO2 meter with me next week, good idea.
I was about to make the same point. Lack of ventilation. On this morning's local news (Portland Maine) there was a report about a local school where students were feeling ill, suffering nose bleeds and other ailments. CO2 levels were above 2000 ppm.
I can't help but agree. I taught a large class, 170 students in a freshmen level class, in a room with no windows, a single projector and a large screen. No matter what I would do, I lost the last two rows. There were not "dumb" students, or even disinterested ones overall, just distant in a brightly but badly lit room. The best thing to do in a class like this is to take them outside, but outside was next to a freeway and only the 20 closest students could hear a thing. No wonder students have nature deficit disorder, we build nature deficit classrooms.
What a horrid room! Not only beige and windowless, but without any of the biophilic patterns that can emotionally (at least) connect us to nature and natural systems and pacings.
This also remind me of the bland and featureless hospital rooms which, if they have windows, look out into parking lots.
How is it that we expect people to learn, to heal, to connect, to thrive in these spaces? Throw in plastic tables, chairs, flooring and vinyl wall papers and we’re dying in plastic bubbles, day by day.
"The problem for my students and me is that we are sitting for three hours"
There's your problem right there, Mr. Alter!
crashing off their sugar breakfast and lunch-not enough fresh air
Was also going to suggest logging CO2. When we create physical and social environments misaligned with how our physiologies evolved to operate most effectively (that also changes over the course of our lives), we create evolutionary mismatches impacting our performance and health.
If you're not already familiar with it, you might also check out Terrapin Green's research into biophilia and student outcomes (which relates in part, of course, to daylight and windows). I think it's included within their Economics of Biophilia publication (https://www.terrapinbrightgreen.com/report/eob-2/) and they might have a separate publication just on schools, but I couldn't find it just now.
Is 'sick building syndrome' a real thing?
Fascinating thread . I wonder why adolescents have that shift in biological clock, what evolutionary process did that come from??