Acoustical Society of America announces new national standards for Acoustics in Permanent and Modular Classrooms.
The Acoustical Society of America, headquartered in Melville, NY, announced the publication of a newly revised, two-part standard that addresses classroom acoustics. These documents are also a valuable resource for school boards, school facilities personnel and parents who need to understand the importance of minimizing distracting noise in the classroom and creating an acoustical environment that is conducive to learning.
These standards represent the consensus of opinion among those with a direct expertise and interest in the subject matter. They were drafted by working groups comprising experts and stakeholders who volunteered their time to the projects. They were approved by ANSI-Accredited Standards Committee S12, Noise, under operating procedures accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), a not-for-profit organization that coordinates the development of voluntary consensus standards in the US.
The national standards are now available as a two-part series. The first part, ANSI/ASA S12.60-2010/Part 1, “American National Standard Acoustical Performance Criteria, Design Requirements, and Guidelines for Schools, Part 1: Permanent Schools, is a major revision of ANSI S12.60-2002. The particular issues related to acoustics in relocatable classrooms are addressed in ANSI/ASA S12.60-2009/Part 2, “American National Standard Acoustical Performance Criteria, Design Requirements, and Guidelines for Schools, Part 2: Relocatable Classroom Factors.”
Thanks to a unique partnership of industry supporters Armstrong Ceiling Systems, Trane, and Owens Corning, ASA is able to offer both standards for download from the ASA online store at no cost to the user. “Every school official in the country can have these useful resources at hand because cost is not a prohibitive factor,” said Dr. Paul D. Schomer, ASA’s Standards Director.
These standards and many other national and international standards can be obtained in PDF format from the Acoustical Society of America Online Store . Standards may also be ordered by fax or mail from: Acoustical Society of America, 35 Pinelawn Road, Suite 114E, Melville NY 11747-3177, Phone: 631-390-0215, Fax: 631-390-0217, Email: asastds@aip.org.
ASA offers the full catalog of ISO/TC 108 Mechanical vibration, shock and condition monitoring, ISO/TC 43 Acoustics, ISO/TC 43/SC 1 Noise, and IEC/TC 29 Electroacoustics standards, as well as a wide range of American National Standards on the topics of Acoustics, Mechanical Vibration and Shock, Bioacoustics, and Noise.
The American National Standards Institute, Inc. (ANSI) is the national coordinator of voluntary standards development and the clearinghouse in the USA for information on national and international standards. For more information, visit https://ansi.org.
The Acoustical Society of America is a nonprofit organization founded in 1929. It is the premier international scientific society in acoustics, dedicated to increasing and diffusing the knowledge of acoustics and promoting its practical applications. For more information, visit https://ascousticalsociety.org.
