Daylight Shown to Improve Student Performance

Research

The Heschong-Mahone Group has performed a number of now classic studies examining the impact of access to daylight on school children. Quite plainly, “Students in classrooms with the most daylighting were found to have 7% to 18% higher scores than those in rooms with the least.”

Implications

The implications of this and other studies are clear: providing access to natual daylight is a critical concern in the design of learning spaces. The use of natural daylighting as a means to improve occupant health, productivity, and well-being is one of the most well researched theories in environmental science, and many other studies confirming such results will be profiled here in the future.

Well-Daylit Library Space at Cape Fear Academy

Citation

Heschong Mahone Group. “Daylighting in Schools: An Investigation into the Relationship Between Daylighting and Human Performance.” Condensed Report. 20 August 1999.