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daily kansan
wednesday ▲
4.22.98 ▲
ten.a
Classroom aura colors learning
Design schemes, lighting brighten attention span
story by ronnie wachter • rwachter@kansan.com
"There are a lot of left-handed students and not enough left handed chairs. That's a fairly consistent issue."
lorna zimmer director of student services with disabilities
feeling tense or angry as finals approach? You're
1. You're seeing too much red.
Do you walk into your classroom and start feeling depressed? The room may have too many blues.
University of Kansas professors say that the design of classrooms, including furniture, lighting and paint color, can affect students' abilities to learn.
KU students say some of their classrooms are not the best learning environments the University could offer.
Got milk? Though the subject may be stimulating, the professor may not always be able to hold the attention of the class. Color, design, lighting and other distractions can affect students' ability to learn. Glare caused by window placement and overhead lights (left) can cause distractions and students to have to shield their eyes if the light reflected off a highly polished surface.
"Out or all the buildings I've had classes in. Wesco Hall has by far been the worst." said Mark Diehes, Lawrence junior. "It's like your house: You can have all the lights on and you can see, but it's a totally different feeling if you have sunlight."
In his 1995 book, Light: The Shape of Space, Lou Michel KU professor of architecture and urban design, wrote that color could be as important to a classroom as a chalkboard.
"Color affects brain activity and biorhythms, influencing our moods and feelings," he wrote.
Those are dulling colors," he said. "You put race horses in boxes painted green or blue, and they calm down."
The color of paint on a room's walls could disrupt a student's ability to concentrate. Michel writes, Red, yellow, orange and, in some cases, purple are considered exciting colors that could overstimulate students, especially those who are stressed as they start to think about finals.
Mook said that green and blue were also not good colors to use in a classroom.
Michel found that there was a glaring problem with glaring classrooms, which can occur with the use of overhead lights.
Martin Moek, assistant professor of architectural engineering, said those colors are rarely used in classrooms in the United States.
The color of a room, and almost everything else in it, is affected by the room's light. Although light is something of a requirement in most classrooms, it can at times be a hindrance as well.
"They are used a little in Europe," he said. "I think here everybody goes for dull grey."
"These are conditions of glare, causing people to shield their eyes, squint, or look away, and prohibiting the eye from functioning at full efficiency."
John Gaunt, dean of the School of Architecture, said that glare could also be caused by window placement.
But sunlight comes through windows, which can pose problems.
It is not difficult to deal with, as long as you are aware of it when designing," he said.
"It is difficult if not impossible to focus on a given task on a highly polished tabletop that reflects a bright light overhead," he wrote.
Gaunt said the best way to eliminate glare was to employ sunlight instead of overhead light whenever possible.
"There are positive and negative aspects to that." Gaunt said.
He said that humans tended to have a sub-conscious connection to the sun.
"In a normal classroom situation, you would not want to shut off access to the outside," he said. "We live with light. Everything is
defined by it, so you respond by every human mechanism to it."
But students may respond to outdoor distractions they see through windows, he said.
"If it's a cloudy day out, your students tend to be down," he said. "If it's bright and sunny, they may just want to go outside."
And that is only the beginning of the problems windows can pose.
"Windows are one of the things that can disrupt acoustics in a room," said Bob Coffine, professor of architecture. "There's a lot of things that can affect that."
Coffine said that proper acoustics in a classroom were essential.
"What it's all about is the decay rate, the reverberation, if you will, of a room," he said.
Coffine said that the problem with certain classrooms was flutter echo, which he said happened when sound bounces repeatedly off of parallel surfaces.
He said some of the worst acoustics on campus used to be found in the enrollment center in Strong Hall.
"It was a disaster," he said. "There were a lot of complaints that it was hard to understand people in that room."
re said that the University hired a construction firm to build a new ceiling of sound-absorbing panels a foot below the original ceiling.
"It's been a major improvement," he said. "They put carpeting on the floor for a more friendly feel, and that helps deaden the sound of footfalls, too."
"If you have a window placed behind or close to a speaker, the light coming from it can keep someone hard of hearing from reading his lips," Shuttic said. "It can also make it hard to read an interpreter's hand signs."
Michael Shuttic, chairman of the Architectural Barriers Committee, said that all of the problems that could be presented in the design of a normal classroom were only magnified in auditoriums.
"Like if someone is recovering from surgery or has a cast on their leg, they'll require a certain kind of seat," she said. "Someone with back problems might need something soft to sit on. We have people who talk to us on a regular basis about things like that."
"Students in wheelchairs or with other challenges may not be able to get inside a classroom, or may not be able to find a seat where they can see and hear the teacher," he said. "We sometimes have to change the location of the class, and we're always looking for ways to make improvements."
"There are a lot of left-handed students and not enough left-handed chairs," she said.
"That's a fairly consistent issue."
"The University has put hundreds of thousands of dollars each year into improving classrooms." she said.
Shuttic said the Architectural Barriers Committee fielded complaints from students with disabilities, whose classrooms can impair their learning — after they get into the classroom.
Zorna said she believed that the University did a good job of meeting the needs of all its students.
Lorna Zimmer, director of Services for Students with Disabilities, said that students with temporary disabilities needed special accommodations that many classrooms are unequalled to provide.
Aside from students with disabilities, Zoma said her staff assisted many students who differ from the prototypical student which most rooms were designed for.
Aside from the lack of lefty-chairs, Zornai said that many desks have been covered in graffiti making them difficult to write on. She
also said some chairs were simply too old and in advanced states of disrepair; much like some of the classrooms they are in.
She said that her department, which is located in the basement of Strong Hall, often received complaints about classrooms in the upper levels of the building.
"There are some rooms on the third floor that are in very bad shape," she said.
But Zimmer didn't think those rooms have posed many serious problems.
"In general, students are pretty tolerant of things like that," she said.
Bright colors, such as those in a Strong Hall lecture room (above), have the ability to overstimulate students. Because windows in a room can disrupt acoustics, the auditoriums in Budig Hall (left) are lighted artificially. Without natural light, however, students might be missing something they need. "We live with light," said John Gaunt, dean of the School of Architecture. "Everything is defined by it, so you respond by every human mechanism to it." Photos and photo illustration (top) by Bryan Volk / KANSAN