Thursday, August 30, 2012

Dizziness in the Classroom - CO2 accumulation

Many students have fallen sleep during a class, this is a proven fact, but, do you think it has to do with the subject being boring? The teacher being boring? or the student is tired and hasn't a good sleep the night before?

The solution for some teachers is to tell that student to go outside and go refresh his face with water so he can wake up, and it seems to work, but, is it really one of the reasons the ones i said above?

Source: blogs.edweek.org

Studies have found that the main reason for dizziness and drowsiness in a schoolroom is the increase of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) in the classroom air, effect of a poor ventilation and air exchange and renovation. This means that educators wont have to keep feeling they are boring (even if they are sometimes, lets face the facts) or the subject itself is boring or the fact that the student is really tired.

Source: scijourner.org

The average person exhales up to 2 pounds of Carbon dioxide, this gas is colorless and odorless and cannot be monitored if its not by sensors. Some schools have already placed sensors connected to the ventilation system in order to have a controlled environment and keep the air always fresh to avoid Carbon Dioxide accumulations.

Technology has help the humanity in many ways, but, do you think its necessary to install these devices in order to keep a classroom fresh? These devices control and make decisions with the Fan and ventilation systems adjusting the speed and exchange rate, but wouldn't it be just enough to provide classrooms with proper ventilation and proper maintenance? most of the time the ventilation systems decay because or poor maintenance and the fact that the filters are never replaced or a broken fan is never fixed.

Some schools cannot afford these kind of equipment, for EACH classroom as it is necessary, but even if the school can in fact afford it, wouldn't it be smarter to invest part of that money in replacing the entire ventilation system for a efficient system and better maintenance personal? instead of investing the money on a device that will only monitor and adjust the speed of a fan? and taking in consideration that even these devices will still need a proper maintenance and proper calibration every year, adding an extra cost to the budget.

I could be mistaken, and I'm not taking in consideration the energy consumption, because having a controlled system will lead to a efficient energy consumption only using full power when its needed. Nowadays classroom have become more crowded meaning that the levels of CO2 will raise to a high point easily.

Ive read that recently scientist have made a better device to detect carbon dioxide, developing a cheaper system that can be used by schools no matter the budget, its been said that these new devices wont require constant calibration and this is an example that in the future, this technology could be affordable.

But other problem faced is the amount of students placed on a single classroom, this is another important fact that leads on accumulation of Carbon Dioxide.

So what you think? Let me know your opinion about this, Do you agree we should all take our desks and go outside and do our classes there?


1 comments:

Vague Raconteur said...

I'd say just an "air freshener" that removes CO2 from a classroom would be brilliant. I know there are points in the day where I feel so drained for no particular reason, this would explain why.

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