General end of the year overview:

In the beginning of the project, I really had no idea how this year would turn out and what direction my project would go in. There were a lot of question marks and not a lot of plans. I was really all over the place regarding my topic. Through the year I learned so much about not only acoustics and hearing loss, but also about myself. As I researched, I learned about how certain things in the classroom(or just even in life really) affected me specifically and I also realized how and why many of my struggles and difficulties occur and what the best ways to deal with them are. These are life long lessons that I will carry with me through college and beyond so I am very grateful to have done this project. My understanding of special awareness and the value of time inside the classroom has increased exponentially and I have really enjoyed working with everyone involved in making my signature project come to life and grow into the vision I had always wanted it to be but didn’t always know how to create it.

Acoustical suggestions:

A significant part of my project was focusing on acoustics of the classrooms and figuring out the best way to improve them. I studied three rooms: Slocum 228, Weaver 101, and Hunter 201.

The main problem with the classroom in Hunter is that it is all hard, flat surfaces. These are the absolute worst acoustical properties for a room to have. An easy fix could be putting up curtains around the sides of the room that would cover the lab space. This would allow for easy access to the lab spaces but would also provide an easy cover for them that would absorb more sound waves and improve the acoustics of that classroom.

In Weaver, an easy fix could also be thick curtains. Right now the classroom has shades for the windows but they do little to nothing for the acoustics of the space. Their only use is to block sunlight. Getting thicker, cloth curtains would block out sunlight while also absorbing more sound. Another improvement could be adding a wall-to-wall carpet on the floor. At the moment, the room has a rug that only covers the middle of the room. This leaves a lot of the floor uncovered. Adding the rug would add more sound absorbing surface as well as help mute the creaking floor boards that are common in the old buildings.

In Slocum, the space already has a carpet that covers the whole floor although it is very thin and does not help nearly as much as a better carpet could. By replacing the thin, worn carpet with a thicker and fluffier carpet would improve the sound quality of the room drastically. The window shades in this room are identical to those in Weaver so they have the same problem and purpose. By replacing the thin shades with thick curtains the room would have more sound absorbance. In most of the Slocum classrooms, blackboards cover all the walls. This means that hard walls surround the whole room. Something that could be interesting to try is installing sliding sound absorbance panels in front of the chalkboards. The sound absorbance panels would really transform the space in an acoustical sense. The panels would really add a whole new level of acoustical improvement to the classrooms at school and having the sliding feature would make sure that the blackboards would always be easily accessible.

Bibliography

General Hearing Loss Research:

U. (n.d.). Nonsyndromic hearing loss - Genetics Home Reference. Retrieved October 23, 2016, from https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/nonsyndromic-hearing-loss

Smith, R. J. (2014, January 09). Deafness and Hereditary Hearing Loss Overview. Retrieved November 10, 2016, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK1434/

Cochlea. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30th, 2016, from http://www.nchearingloss.org/coch.htm?fromncshhh

America, H. L. (n.d.). Types, Causes and Treatment | Hearing Loss Association of America. Retrieved January 28, 2017, from http://www.hearingloss.org/content/types-causes-and-treatment

Hearing Aid Technology Research:

Shara Tibken November 3, 2016 5:00 AM PDT @sharatibken. (2016, November 03). Apple iPhone tech helps reinvent the hearing aid. Retrieved December 2, 2016, from https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-iphone-hearing-aid-tech-deaf-ios-accessibility-cochlear-starkey-bluetooth-watch/

America, H. L. (n.d.). Hearing Assistive Technology | Hearing Loss Association of America. Retrieved January 28, 2017, from http://www.hearingloss.org/content/hearing-assistive-technology

Cochlear Implants. (2017, March 06). Retrieved December 1, 2016, from https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/cochlear-implants

Fish, Birds and Human Hearing Loss - The Latest Research Into Inner Ear Hair Cell Regeneration. (n.d.). Retrieved January 2, 2017, from https://swentnm.com/resource/fish-birds-and-human-hearing-loss-the-latest-research-into-inner-ear-hair-cell-regeneration/

Fish, Birds and Human Hearing Loss - The Latest Research Into Inner Ear Hair Cell Regeneration. (n.d.). Retrieved January 2, 2017, from https://swentnm.com/resource/fish-birds-and-human-hearing-loss-the-latest-research-into-inner-ear-hair-cell-regeneration/

Acoustics Research:

DeBoer, C., & About Clint DeBoer (2014, May 12). Improve Your Sound By Understanding Room Acoustics. Retrieved April 24, 2017, from http://usabilitygeek.com/improve-sound-understanding-room-acoustics/

Altmann, C. (n.d.). Room Acoustics. Retrieved April 15, 2017, from http://www.mother-of-tone.com/room.htm

Acoustical Panels & Soundproofing Materials to Control Sound and Eliminate Noise™, Supplied by Acoustics First. (n.d.). Retrieved May 1, 2017, from http://www.acousticsfirst.com/