School

Researchers at Rensselaer’s Lighting Research Center have found that exposing people to reddish light during the “post-lunch dip” can be advantageous.  The “dip” is generally from 2 to 4 in the afternoon or 16-18 hours after bedtime the previous night.  Mariana Figueiro and Levent Sahin conducted a study whose “results suggest that red light positively affects measures of alertness not only at night, but also during the day . . .

Information collected by McGraw-Hill during its 2012 Green Schools Study indicates that there are significant benefits from greening schools.  Researchers, who “looked at green in both new construction/major renovations and retrofits/operational improvements, “ and gathered information from school personnel, found that “Two-thirds report that their school had an enhanced reputation and ability to attract students to their green investments; 91% of K-12 schools and 87% of higher education state that their green schools increase health and well-being; 74% of K-12 and 63

New research suggests that people developing spaces that will be used by autistic people, for example, as classrooms, should insure that those areas are pet friendly.  This might mean that there are places nearby for animals to stretch their legs or that the design supports small animals and their cages, perhaps through in-room water faucets.

Miller-Cochran and Gierdowski have learned that flexible classroom design cost-effectively supports composition (writing) classes.  More specifically, when students are using their own laptop computers during class “in a flexible classroom, which included mobile furnishings, mobile whiteboards, and multiple LCD screens for projection . . . .

Researchers at Durham University explored the learning repercussions of multi—touch, multi-user desks. Their findings, derived “from a 3-year project working with over 400 pupils, mostly 8-10 year olds, show that collaborative learning increases both fluency and flexibility in maths. It also shows that using an interactive ‘smart’ desk can have benefits over doing mathematics on paper. Using multi-touch desks in the new classroom, the children were able to work together in new ways to solve and answer questions and problems using inventive solutions.