Audio Visual Room

The audio-visual room is a place where the students of all classes experience

learning in an effective way. The audio-visual method appeals most to the senses. It leaves

a deeper impact as it involves greater attention in the act of learning and helps the child to

retain the concepts taught through these aids.

Classrooms

Major factors to be considered in designing a classroom are the following:

l. Seating and writing surfaces

2. Space and furnishings for the lecturer

3. The use of wall space, including chalkboards, screens, size and location of windows, etc.

4. Facilities for projection and television

5. Coat racks, storage, and other conveniences

6. Acoustics and lighting

7. Heating and air conditioning

8. Aesthetic considerations

Classroom Seating The seating arrangement is the most important feature in

determining the size and shape of a classroom. Seating arrangements in a mathematics

classroom should provide all students with a good view of the front chalkboard, ready

access both to the seats and to chalkboards on other walls, an adequate, well illuminated

writing surface at each seat, a place to set books and papers, reasonable comfort, and

privacy in taking examinations. In a class of 50 or fewer students, where a long front

chalkboard is desirable, it seems better to have the front wall longer than the side walls.

This presupposes that there are more students in a row of seats than there are rows; for

example, visibility is better in a classroom having five rows of seven seats than in one

having seven rows of five seats. In a room measuring 26' X 30' (Fig. 1), with separate tablet

armchairs for 35 students, the seven seats in a row might have a spacing of 3'6" between

seat centers laterally and 4'6" between the end seat centers and side walls (6 X 3'6" -f- 9' _

30'). Spacing from front to back in a column might be 3 feet between seat centers with 4

feet behind the back-seat center and 10 feet between the front-seat center and the front

chalkboard (4 X 3' + 14' = 26'). This pattern allows for aisles of about 20 inches between

columns, a width just under the 22-inch "unit width" used as a standard in estimating the

number of persons who can walk abreast in a corridor or stair hall.

This arrangement requires about 22 square feet of space per student. Lecture halls

whose seats have folding tablet arms may allow 15 square feet or less per student. Close-
packed seating arrangements are not the most desirable, but sometimes are necessary

because larger rooms are not available. Laws in some states provide that no person shall

have to pass more than six others to reach an aisle; hence 14 persons in a row between

aisles is an absolute maximum. If 10 to 14 students sit next to each other in a row behind a

long strip table or writing ledge, the ledge should be at least 12 inches wide and should

provide at least 2 feet of length per person. An arrangement whereby the nearer half of the

writing surface in front of each person can fold up and away from the writer gives more

room for students to pass.