The Effect of CO 2 Concentration on Children’s Well-Being during the Process of Learning

Snezana Bogdanovica, Jurgis Zemitis and Raimonds Bogdanovics
Additional contact information
Snezana Bogdanovica: Daugavpils Secondary School Nr 9, LV-5401 Daugavpils, Latvia
Jurgis Zemitis: Heat, Gas and Water Technology Institute, Riga Technical University, LV-1048 Riga, Latvia
Raimonds Bogdanovics: Heat, Gas and Water Technology Institute, Riga Technical University, LV-1048 Riga, Latvia

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 22, 1-14

Abstract: There are more than 200 thousand pupils in Latvia. Most of them are still learning in non-renovated classrooms without proper mechanical ventilation. The classrooms are often ventilated only during the breaks by opening windows. This can lead to increased CO 2 levels and reduced mental performance. To test how CO 2 concentration in classrooms influences student attention level and their ability to perform mental tasks, the students had to complete a short test at the start and the end of the class. At the same time CO 2 concentration, temperature and relative humidity were logged. In addition, an anonymous survey on how the pupils felt regarding the overall indoor environmental quality (IEQ) in the classroom, their thermal sensation, are they fatigued, any difficulty concentrating and if they have headaches during the lesson performed. The measurements were performed in a Secondary School in Daugavpils, Latvia. The analysis of results shows that existing 10 min breaks are not enough to fully ventilate the classroom, and they must be increased to at least 15 min. At the same time, 30 min breaks can be reduced to 20 min. The correlation between CO 2 concentration and test results of pupils’ performance test results is noticeable but not definitive. It indicates that at increased CO 2 levels the performance lowers—when the concentration of CO 2 corresponds only to the Category 3 norm, the lowest results are achieved while the best results are when the CO 2 concentration level corresponds to Category 1. To improve the study, observations of CO 2 concentrations must be extended throughout the school year, as well as measurements in other classrooms in the school should be made.

Keywords: natural ventilation; indoor air pollution; indoor environmental quality (IEQ); performance; classroom (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/22/6099/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/22/6099/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:22:p:6099-:d:448730

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().