Conference_programme: 18.2 - Noise in children facilities
Lecture: Interdisciplinary approach to controlling noise in children's facilities
Author(s): Jeram Sonja, Bažec Bojana, Pavlič Helena, Plut Pregelj Leopoldina
Summary:
The complex educational functions of children's facilities demand an interdisciplinary approach to control external as well as internal noise, and thus create healthy conditions for children's cognitive and social development. Teachers are aware of external noise, such as traffic, but bothered mostly by noise generated by buildings, such as reverberation. Often they are not aware of children's immature physiology of hearing, listening and sensitivity to noise in terms of perception and problems due to noise.\nThe strategic noise maps for the urban areas of the two largest cities of Ljubljana and Maribor, identified 413 educational institutions, among them 153 kindergartens and 86 elementary schools, representing 13 and 18 percent of all such premises in Slovenia respectively. A list of buildings with evaluated noise level has been created for municipalities to inform them about the situation requirement to mitigate noise in the environment. Changes to the existing legislation at state level have also been suggested.\nElementary schools wanting to cooperate in solving the noise problem were identified. They agreed to share best practices to reduce noise. When encountering external noise, teachers simply closed the windows. Most of the schools identified inappropriate reverberation time as their major problem, but were poorly informed on ways to resolve the problem. In the workshop »Noise and health at schools« teachers and students from the Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering agreed to plan research projects for further evaluation of the problem and work together to seek solutions.\nWithin the Slovenian network of Schools for Health in Europe, information about the noise and its effects have been distributed to students and teachers; workshops organized for teachers and healthy sound environments promoted in school facilities. The paper will present improvements made and obstacles encountered in reducing noise. One of the observations has been that educators on all levels have to be more engaged in creating a healthier sound environment for children.\n
Corresponding author
Name: Dr Sonja Jeram
e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Country: Slovenia
