Exploring the INDOOR Environment of your school

1
Exploring the INDOOR Environment of your school
2
The indoor environment is the HUMAN environment!
Put your school under a microscope.
Examine your school as if it were uncharted
territory.
Careful! Its a jungle IN there!
3
What can your students learn from their school
building and its indoor environment?
Microbiology
Environmental science
History
Physics
Chemistry
Economics
Human behavior
Math
Politics
Sociology
Health
Entomology
Engineering
Architecture
4
Why should we study our own school building?
Students and teachers spend 6 hours or more each
day in the school environment.
We can learn how to improve our indoor
environment to make teaching and learning easier.
Students should learn early-on about the
importance of their school environment their
own kids will go to school one day!
As with the outdoor environment failure to
learn about the indoor environment has
consequences to health and productivity.
5
Examples of lessons related to the indoor
environment.
6
History, health, science
Ancient Egyptians observed that stone carvers
working indoors had a higher incidence of
respiratory distress than those outdoors.
In 1600 King Charles I decreed building codes
intended to reduce disease transmission in
crowded rooms.
In 1777 Lavoisier began his study of oxygen and
CO2 in crowded rooms.
7
History mold discussion in the bible
Leviticus XIV 35 Then he that owneth the house
come and tell the priest, saying Something like
a leprosy hath shown itself to me in the house.
37 And he shall view the plague, and, behold, if
the plague be in the walls of the house, with
hollow strokes, greenish or reddish and their
appearance be deeper than the wall
8
History, health, witchcraft?
Salem Witch Trials Individuals suffering from
delusions and convulsions were accused of being
witches or bewitched. The symptoms were
consistent with poisoning by the ergot fungus
toxin on bread from which LSD may be extracted.
http//www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/lessons/lp_salem.h
tml
9
History
History, medicine, engineering
Florence Nightingale is famous for advancing the
nursing Profession. Her experience with disease
spread in hospitals during the Crimean War also
made her an advocate for building ventilation.
10
Microbiology
Algae
Water stains
Mold
11
Physics
Air flows from high pressure to low pressure. Can
you smell the kitchen or chem lab?
Convection can provide free ventilation open
the bottom window AND the top window. How can
you show this?
Can you put more air into a room than you take
out of it? To get fresh air in you have to let
air out. Some portable classrooms are so tight
you have to crack a door or window to allow the
ventilation system to pull in fresh air.
12
Physics animals use it! We should study it!
Giancoli, D.C. Physics Principles with
applications, v 1, 6th ed, Pearson - Prentice
Hall.
13
Economics / Arithmetic
School District Budget
Why arent we using this stuff in our lessons?
Politics?
Our children emerge from the school system
completely ignorant of what it cost to educate
them and what it will cost to educate their
children?
Most adults have no idea about what it takes
/costs to run a school district! No wonder our
schools are
14
1893 New Hampshire Ventilation Codes
15
Arithmetic
Ventilation Rates
15 cubic feet of outside air per minute per
person X 30 students and 1 teacher how much
outside air flow to the room per minute?
Average Daily Allowance
If your district gets X per day per student and
Y students are absent due to Z asthma episodes
per year, how many does the district lose in a
year?
16
Arithmetic
Occupant density
Determine the area of the classroom and divide by
the number of people in the room. How much area
does each person get on average? Ask a parent
who works in an office how much area they get.
We pack more people into schools than we would
find acceptable for an office.
17
Arithmetic
A custodians job
Determine the floor area of the schools in your
district and divide by the number of custodians.
How much floor area does your custodian have to
clean?
A maintenance persons job
Determine the number of ventilation units in the
district and divide by the number of ventilation
mechanics etc.
18
Chemistry
This is our totally enclosed room. Doors,
windows closed and no ventilation. Now lets add
a few people, some building furnishings,
etc. What goes into the air?
Our rooms are really beakers in which chemical
reactions take place in the air.
19
Courtesy of Brett C. Singer Hugo Destaillats
Indoor Environment Dept., Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory
20
Human beings and animals breathe in air
containing oxygen (O2) and breathe out air
containing carbon dioxide (CO2) and other
contaminants. This is one of the ways our bodies
have of getting rid of wastes. And we all know
about unpleasant gases and odors from our
digestive processes and perspiration! To make us
smell better we use aftershaves, colognes,
perfumes and deodorants. We also use hairsprays,
nail polish and other personal care products.
These products may add additional contaminants to
the air. It makes sense not to breathe too much
of these contaminants which accumulate quickly in
closed rooms. We should remove these odors and
contaminants by opening windows or using good
mechanical ventilation!
21
Our school buildings reflect the state of our
economies, social values and pressures, and the
latest fads and styles in building.
All the subjects we teach in school can be
learned by studying our own school buildings.
Perhaps if our kids learn more about our
schools buildings, theyll appreciate just how
important they are to the well-being and
productivity of their own children.
We spend so much time in our buildings isnt it
time we learned about them and what they can
tell us about ourselves.
22
Lets go on an explore inside!