“Let’s Hear it for Learning!”

Connor Bailey Receives Top Award for His Science Project on Classroom Acoustics

By Barbara Kelley

Connor Bailey, nine-year-old researcher, concludes: “Sometimes it isn’t so much what we don’t hear, but what we don’t understand. It was like fireworks going off when I realized this fact. If I could make teachers, principals and school boards understand that, then I would feel that I have really accomplished something.”

Connor Bailey is deeply concerned about noise, hearing damage, and how well students can hear and understand in the classroom. The amazing part is that Connor is nine years old ! His curiosity and research won him First Place in the Third Grade Division of Parkside Elementary School’s science fair for his project “Let’s Hear It for Learning.”. He went on to the Tri-State Competition on March 8 where he placed second in his age division.

Connor wanted to do his science project this year about prolonged exposure to noise on the bus or in the lunchroom, so he searched the Internet and finally contacted Mike Nixon, acoustics expert. Mike said the decibel level would have to be excessive to cause any hearing damage, but he suggested Connor test the acoustics in his classroom as it was a “really hot topic right now.”

Connor took Mike’s guidance and the offer to borrow a sound meter and got to work. Here is Connor’s description of his methodology:

“First, I couldn’t have done the project without the meter. I can’t thank Mike enough! I tested sound levels in four different classrooms: the background noise levels; then, the teachers’ speaking levels.

“My purpose was to find out: If noise levels in the classrooms at Parkside Elementary were high enough to affect our learning.

“What I learned is that sometimes it isn’t so much what we don’t hear, but what we don’t understand. This is speech intelligibility. The effect that speech intelligibility can have on our kids (special needs kids, English as a second language students, and those who might have a hearing loss) is gigantic. It was like fireworks going off when I realized this fact. We fill in a lot when we don’t quite understand the words someone is saying. But, if you don’t have the vocabulary to fill in those spots, the brain shuts down, you eventually stop listening all together, and learning stops.

“If I could make teachers, principals and school boards understand that, then I would feel that I have really accomplished something. This project already got my teacher talking about sound distractions and our principal read my entire project from top to bottom and was very impressed.

“I concluded that the speech intelligibility rating at my school was consistent at 89% (the national standard is 90%). You know the special needs kids are suffering to some extent, but, overall, the school didn’t do so badly. We were pretty much right in the middle -- not great but not horrible either. “

Connor’s mother, Peggy, said the project was so detailed and some of his insights were so “awesome,” that is was really hard to get Connor to boil it down for this article. One judge said this was one of the best projects he has seen in the last seven years, out of any grade. Another said that Connor knew his subject extremely well.

What’s Next?
Last year, his project was measuring CO2 in the classrooms (also placed first locally and at the state level). Next year, Connor hopes to do another project involving the environment and learning. He wants to put all three years of research together for his fifth grade year because, as Connor says,” If I win the Tri-State in fifth grade, then I get to compete in Washington, D.C.!”

Connor lives in La Grange, Indiana, with his mom and dad (Peggy and Chris) and his seven-year-old sister, Nicole. When he’s not doing science projects, he takes tap and jazz dance and participates in plays and musicals. He is an avid reader (recently the Harry Potter books and the Lemony Snickets series). He collects Nutcrackers and Beatle memorabilia. (Peggy adds, “Yes, even he realizes those are strange collections for a nine-year-old.”). And, he truly hopes one day to attend Notre Dame University in his home state.

Connor Bailey…congratulations! You have opened the eyes of many with your research on this “really hot topic.”

Barbara Kelley is editor of Hearing Loss: The Journal of Self Help for Hard of Hearing People.