Improve Acoustics and Academics – Noise Control for the Classroom

The ideal classroom is one in which students can clearly understand the instructor during lecture and focus on assignments, projects and tests in an environment free of distractions. Here we outline some of the soundproofing challenges faced within classrooms:

-Outside sound transmission into the classroom. A classroom left untreated for sound transmission will not only allow sound to escape, but will allow the transfer of outside noise into the classroom. Audible outside noise can be a major distraction and interfere with the quality of any learning environment. Additionally, excessive outside noise such as outdoor construction or students in a hallway can eliminate a teacher’s ability to communicate effectively with the students in the class altogether.

-Numerous hard, reflective surfaces: A major soundproofing challenge arises from an issue common to most classrooms—the presence of walls, desks and a ceiling, each of which reflects sound waves back into the room. As a teacher delivers a lecture, a portion of the sound waves produced by his or her voice reflects from the numerous hard surfaces within the room, a behavior known as sound reflection. Reverberations delivered back into a classroom interfere with the intended sound, and is thus one of the sound wave behaviors targeted in soundproofing a classroom.

-Multiple voices competing within the room. Students can strengthen important fundamental skills by working with a team or partner on a project, but a noisy classroom environment can make group work difficult. With numerous people speaking at the same time, a jumble of voices reflects from the hard surfaces in the classroom, and the resulting reverberations interfere with audibility throughout the room. Heightened noise levels are exacerbated as students speak more loudly in order to be heard.

In order to prevent outside noise from bleeding in and combat reverberations created within a classroom, soundproofing treatments must target both sound transmission and sound reflection. Now let us take a look at how each of these sound behaviors can be alleviated in a classroom environment:

-Controlling sound transmission: Eliminating noise transmitting in from outside a classroom (and vice versa) involves isolating the room such that the ability of sound waves to transmit through the walls and ceiling is compromised. Sound waves travel freely through common contact points, such as the studs and walls surrounding the classroom. Isolating a classroom can be accomplished by adding density to each wall and creating a separated wall surface parallel to each. Adding density is often accomplished by covering walls completely with a heavyweight vinyl soundproofing membrane such as dB-Bloc. Once increased density is established, a set of horizontal furring strips affixed to the wall creates a foundation for a new layer of drywall that will make up the second wall surface. This separation forces outside sound waves to collapse within the space between the two surfaces rather than transmit directly into the classroom, and also serves to protect adjoining classrooms from sound transmitting out of the treated room.

-Absorbing sound reflections: Controlling sound reverberations caused by voices and other sounds within a classroom can be accomplished quite easily through the installation of absorptive sound panels along the walls and potentially the ceiling of the room. Absorptive sound treatments are available in a variety of styles to meet the requirements of different applications, including Class A Fire Rated panels ideal for the classroom environment.

Properly implemented, soundproofing treatments can affect a major improvement in the quality of a learning environment. Combating sound transmission and reverberation in a classroom results in better acoustics for lecture and group work while minimizing outside distractions that could otherwise hinder academic performance.