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Objective To study indoor environmental quality (IEQ) in elementary school buildings and its association with students’ learning outcomes. Methods Measurements of ventilation rates and temperatures were recorded during school days in 108 classrooms in 60 schools in the spring and summer of 2007; background information on 3514 school buildings was retrieved from the Finnish population register. Data on school environment and students’ health were collected by questionnaires from 4248 students...

This qualitative study examines what four pre-service and six practicing geography educators in Singapore schools believe to be the purpose of climate change education, and how this intersects with their beliefs about student readiness to handle controversy within climate change education. A key finding of this study indicates that the teachers’ understandings about the purpose of climate change education played the most important role in shaping their perspectives about introducing...

Summary The exponential growth of scientific literature – which we call the ‘big literature’ phenomenon – has created great challenges in literature comprehension and synthesis. The traditional manual literature synthesis processes are often unable to take advantage of big literature due to human limitations in time and cognition, creating the need for new literature synthesis methods to address this challenge. In this paper, we discuss a highly useful literature synthesis approach,...

Purpose Previous studies indicate that teachers have higher asthma prevalence than other non-industrial worker groups. Schools frequently have trouble maintaining indoor relative humidity (RH) within the optimum range (30-50%) for reducing allergens and irritants. However, the potential relationship between classroom humidity and teachers’ health has not been explored. Thus, we examined the relationship between classroom humidity levels and respiratory symptoms among North Carolina...

The study was designed to evaluate and identify the training needs of extension workers on climate change related issues in Zamfara Agriculture Development Project, Zamfara State of Nigeria. A total of 120 sample size was selected and divided into two zones and ADP headquarters namely: Gummi Zone-I (70), Kaura Namoda Zone-II (40) and headquarters (10). Face to face interview was conducted to get the accurate results. Data were analysed using frequencies, mean, percentages and descriptive...

The prediction of the air temperature (IT) and relative humidity (IH) in a building can help to reduce energy consumption for air conditioning. The purpose of this work was to apply the artificial neural network (ANNs) for an hourly prediction, 24–672h in advance of (IT) and (IH) in buildings found in hot-humid region. The inputs used in the model are 12 last values of indoor and outdoor air temperature and relative humidity. The experimental building is built with cement hallow block in...

Climate change and variability are key challenges facing the planet and humanity, particularly in South Africa. The complexity of climate as an interconnected system, including earth and socio-ecological systems and ‘deeper’ thinking, requires critical enquiry as well as reflexive and transformative education approaches. This paper provides a synoptic overview of three emerging South African cases of teacher education materials development, high school material design, and the design and...

Temperatures in Africa are expected to increase by the end of the century. Heat-related health impacts and perceived health symptoms are potentially a problem, especially in public schools with limited resources. Students (n = 252) aged ~14–18 years from eight high schools completed an hourly heat-health symptom log over 5 days. Data loggers measured indoor classroom temperatures. A high proportion of students felt tired (97.2%), had low concentration (96.8%) and felt sleepy (94.1%) during...

The validity of existing thermal comfort models is examined for upper primary school children in classroom settings. This is of importance to enhance productivity in the learning environment and to improve the control of artificial heating and cooling, including the potential for energy savings. To examine the thermal perceptions of children aged 10–12 years in non-air-conditioned classrooms, three sets of field experiments were conducted in boys’ and girls’ primary schools in Shiraz, Iran....

Classroom environment and cultures as well as the ways in which both students and learning are organized and managed increase teachers’ effectiveness in climate change. The effective teacher manages the large number of relatively diverse students who occupy these classrooms within the environment. The importance of physical environment, climate culture, organization and management of classroom within the larger context of teachers effectiveness is mostly clearly seen by noting that beginning...

Rising sea levels, due to thermal expansion of the ocean, and higher frequency and intensity of coastal and inland storms threaten coastal communities worldwide. The implementation of pro-active, planned adaptation to reduce community vulnerability is strongly dependent upon people's awareness of the threat posed to their communities at the local level.  With a focus on university lecturers in South-South Nigeria, a group of people expected to be knowledgeable; this study set out to look at...

Rising sea levels, due to thermal expansion of the ocean, and higher frequency and intensity of coastal and inland storms threaten coastal communities worldwide. The implementation of pro-active, planned adaptation to reduce community vulnerability is strongly dependent upon people's awareness of the threat posed to their communities at the local level.  With a focus on university lecturers in South-South Nigeria, a group of people expected to be knowledgeable; this study set out to look at...

In modern societies, educational buildings play a key role in creating a good social climate and conditions in which children and young people can develop. Several international studies have been conducted to evaluate students’ performance and the factors that most influence it, including classrooms’ thermal comfort. Yet, various revealed differences between pupils’ perception and the results of thermal comfort models. The large majority of the thermal comfort studies in classrooms were...

Rural poor in developing countries including Ethiopia are the most vulnerable community to climate change impacts because they depend mainly on climate sensitive economy. Hence this research attempted to assess the local vulnerability to climate change and farmers’ adaptatio n strategies in five dominant agro ecologies of Choke Mountain watershed of Eastern Gojjam zone. The study attempted to examine farmers’ perception towards climate change, their vulnerability (exposure, adaptive capacity...

Policy summary of paper presented at the regional conference on Rethinking regional security: Nexus between research and policy, November 25-26, 2015, University of Canterbury. A partnership between Macmillan brown Centre for Pacific Studies (University of Canterbury), Australian National University, United National Development Program and International Political Science Association

Policy summary of paper presented at the regional conference on Rethinking regional security: Nexus between research and policy, November 25-26, 2015, University of Canterbury. A partnership between Macmillan brown Centre for Pacific Studies (University of Canterbury), Australian National University, United National Development Program and International Political Science Association