Poor indoor air quality, improper temperature and humidity levels, inadequate ventilation and lighting, excessive noise, and outdated facilities can negatively impact student and teacher health, attendance, and academic performance. Specifically, poor indoor air quality affects concentration and causes respiratory issues in over 8 million US students annually. Likewise, temperatures outside the 64-74 degree range and insufficient ventilation lead to discomfort and inability to focus. Ensuring fresh air circulation, appropriate lighting and acoustics, and up-to-date buildings can create an optimal testing environment that supports learning.

1. TESTING
ENVIRONMENTS

2. WHAT IS SO IMPORTANT ABOUT HAVING A
GOOD TESTING ENVIRONMENT?
 Improvement is seen in:
 Academic Performance
 Illustrated with Test Scores
 Health
 Illness
 Breathing issues

3. CLASS DISCUSSION: WHAT ARE SOME ASPECTS OF
AN IDEAL TESTING ENVIRONMENT?
 Talk to the people around you and discuss one or two things
that you think are important when it comes to testing
environments.
 Share your ideas with the class when asked.

4. HOW ARE ACADEMICS AFFECTED BY TESTING
ENVIRONMENTS?

5. INDOOR AIR QUALITY
Facts about IAQ
 According to the article “Do School
Facilities Affect Academic
Outcomes?”, Poor Indoor Air
Quality, or IAQ, affects over 8
million children in the United
States.
 IAQ symptoms include
 Irritated eyes
 Irritated nose and throat
 Upper respiratory infections
 Nausea
 Dizziness
 Fatigue
 sleepiness

6. INDOOR AIR QUALITY
Solution: Fresh Air
 The Occupational Safety and
Health Administration, and the
National Institute of Occupational
Safety and Health, require between
15 and 20 cubic feet of air per
minute per person in a classroom.
 The results of this are
contaminations are removed
and replaced with fresh air.

7. POOR IAQ CAUSES…
 Sick teachers and
students, which leads to…
 Poor teaching and
student performance.
 Giving students good air
quality reduces absence
thereby aiding students
with their academics.

8. TEMPERATURE AND HUMIDITY
 Allergies:
 High levels of temperature and humidity lead to growth
of mold, which brings about allergies.
 Student performance is affected by temperature.
 Students perform better in classrooms with a
temperature of about 64 to 74 degrees.

9. VENTILATION
 Schools need better ventilation…
 Children breathe a greater volume of air in
proportion to their body weight compared to adults
naturally causing them discomfort quicker.
 A symptom of poor ventilation is a build up of
carbon dioxide which is caused by breathing.
 The more CO2 that is present in the air, the more
likely students are to develop headaches and
develop an inability to concentrate due to
drowsiness.

10. VENTILATION
 Simply opening windows in the classroom is not
enough of a solution which is why good ventilation
inside is key.
 Asthma is less likely to occur if
good ventilation is in place.

11. LIGHTING AND COLOR  Lighting :
 Prevents off-task behavior
 Improves test scores
 Plays a big role in overall
student achievement.
 Students who are exposed to
natural lighting in the classroom
progress 20% faster in one year
than students who learn in
artificially lit rooms.

12. LIGHTING AND COLOR

13. ACOUSTICS
 Outside noise causes student  Other causes of poor
dissatisfaction with acoustics:
classrooms and increases  High blood pressure
stress.  Induced feelings of
• Children affected most: helplessness
 Lack of application to
 Children with hearing
learning tasks
impairments
 Younger students who
 Acoustics are sometimes hard
have trouble focusing.
to control because of how the
building was designed or
where the location of the
school is.

14. ACOUSTICS

15. BUILDING AGE AND QUALITY
New Buildings Old Buildings
 Students in newer buildings  Student performance is
(according to a study): lower in buildings going
through renovations since
 Outperform students in there are more distractions.
older buildings
 Had better records of
health, attendance, and
discipline.
 Standardized test scores
increased for students
who took them in newer
buildings.

16. RESOURCES
 Schneider, M. (2002, November). Do School Facilities Affect
Academic Outcomes? National Institute of Building Sciences, 1-8.

17. CONCLUSION
 Having a comfortable classroom is not just a nice
thing to have but it is necessary for the success of
the students and teachers.