Abstract:

In the Acoustics Laboratory of the Faculty of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering of the National Polytechnic Institute (Mexico), a research project on the ``Evaluation of Noise in Academic Environments'' is under development. During the project, noise measurements have been carried out inside and outside of several educational installations of different grades. This paper summarizes some noise levels and describes critical conditions found in and around schools. Inside schools, the most critical cases were found among the lower educational levels, where kids became quite noisy, depending on the teacher's authority, and sometimes on the economical condition of students. In other cases, it was the community surrounding some given schools that was the source of the annoying noise. At the bachelor of science and higher levels, it can be said, in general, that noise from the school complexes to the community is irrelevant. Nevertheless, there were periods of time and conditions with high noise levels which affected academic activities. Due to the lack of national standards and recommendations for the evaluation of noise from or to schools, measuring procedures were taken from ``Labor Noise Conditions'' and ``Noise Sources'' national standards, and reference was made to international recommendations for classrooms, auditoriums, etc.