Do you hear the noise pollution?

Petro Kuzmjak school is a small school in rural area and it is attended by 500 students from 7 to 18 years old and it is always something going on. Last yea,r in April, we have been part of one international project organized by Serbian Center for Science Promotion where students explored the level of noise pollution in our school.

Noise pollution is excessive, undesirable, or disturbing noise that interferes with normal activities and disrupt the balance of human or animal life. It is considered as a form of environmental pollution and some of the source of noise pollutions are: traffic, industry, aircrafts, public events, or household appliances. Constant exposure to noise can cause health issues, sleep disturbance, reduce quality of life, but also disrupt wildlife habitats, affecting animal communication, migration patterns, and overall well-being.

Implementation of noise regulations, sound barriers, and development of quieter technologies potentially mitigate noise pollution. To diminish noise pollution we need to raise public awareness and involve community, and that why is the project that we conducted in the school related to noise pollution has a great importance.

The role of researchers was taken by our eight grade students (15 years) who measured the level of noise in our school with the help of NOIXAPP application in the scope of their mathematical lessons. First step was introduction of application and setting the rules of the use of phone in the school.  NOIXAPP is an application developed by the National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics and it measures acoustic pollution in urban environments. The application uses mobile phone microphones to collect data on urban background noise and sends it to a platform that allows a full picture of the acoustic space of an area to be reconstructed. The solution is based on mobile application software, where it is possible to record, calculate the average values ​​of the sound pressure level. Georeferenced data is transferred and anonymized, integrated, validated and mapped on an open data web portal. Beside the measurement itself, students learned about noise pollution, which is one of the least discussed, although it is very important for people's health.

With this measurement, students evaluated the level of noise in our school. It was an additional motivation for students to take part in the research and to find out if our school is a pleasant and safe place in terms of noise. Students measured the noise in various parts of our school to get a more realistic picture. Measurements were made in the hall, school yard, corridor, hallway, etc. The results were presented graphically, and it was a way to connect collected real life data with mathematical knowledge.