Ergonomic and Perceptual Classroom Accessories to Promote Student Productivity and Engagement

The goal of this project is to acquire accessories to promote a more comfortable and engaging learning environment for students in 8th grade science and a digital literacy elective class. Educational ergonomics research (e.g. Pradhan et al, 2024; Gumasing, 2025) has consistently shown that providing education spaces that reduce physical discomfort, including by improving lighting, modulating classroom temperature, and reducing student discomfort from contact with seating surfaces, has a direct and measurable effect on learning outcomes. This will support district and school goals that seek to promote student engagement with the learning process in order to support better student performance in schools, lower rates of truancy, and higher student scores on state exams.

Students will be provided with classroom accessories to promote their comfort and participation in the learning process. Accessories will also be placed around the room in order to catalyze student engagement with instruction. The teacher will gather student feedback on the use of the accessories, particularly from students with perceptual or sensory processing difficulties, to best optimize the use of the accessories in the classroom to reduce student discomfort in the learning environment. Accessories and supports will be used and modified as needed (for instance, changing the lighting level) in order to support discrete educational activities, such as testing or viewing educational videos.

If my grant receives funding, students will experience a more comfortable, welcoming and engaging learning environment. Providing soft cushion covers for the science lab stools will eliminate a primary and previously identified source of distraction for students, which will also help support students with sensory processing issues that may cause them to be more sensitive to negative environmental stimuli. This will help support student engagement with lessons by eliminating a known source of distractions. Equipping the room with strings of lights will allow for easier student notetaking during videos, as well as enabling easier tuning of light levels for students with sensory processing sensitivities. Providing accessories such as periodic table posters and other evocative scientific stimuli to be placed on the walls and around the room will help set a scientific environment for the room to encourage student focus on topics and lessen student interest in potential distractions. The teacher will monitor the success of the project by observing changes in student outcomes after introducing the learning comfort accessories, both through direct observation of changes in student scores on exams and formative assessments, as well as by observation of student behavior and soliciting student feedback on the changes to the classroom environment. These changes are expected to produce a direct positive effect on student learning.

This grant is for materials to create a more welcoming and supportive educational environment in a new classroom. All the materials selected will directly improve student learning outcomes by eliminating previously identified distractions and allowing for greater customization of the learning environment to support a variety of learning styles and better accommodate students with identified sensory processing needs. If funded, the project will support approximately 91 students across the 8th and 7th grades, enabling them to experience improved learning outcomes through reduced physical discomfort in the learning and testing environment.

319.96

Cushions/covers for student seating areas

240.00

String of decorative classroom lights

14.99

Periodic table poster

14.97

Overflow margin for cost variation and inflation-related cost increases

50.00