Cooler Playground? Yes, Please!
Students at a school in Georgia found a way to make their playground less hot.
Courtesy, GAF (StreetBond ® pavement coatings, a GAF product and part of Standard Industries)
Students at a school called SAE did an experiment to see if a special coating would make their playground less hot.
A school in Georgia coated its playground with a type of coating that reflects sunlight. Now, the playground doesn’t get as hot—making it much more fun to use!
The idea to paint the playground came from an experiment. Students at a school called SAE knew that their school’s playground and parking lot were covered in black asphalt. Asphalt gets very hot because it absorbs (takes in) the Sun’s heat. The students wanted to see if the special coating would make a difference. So they covered one spot in the parking lot with the coating. Then, they measured the ground temperature of that parking spot. They compared it with the temperature of the rest of the parking lot. The parking spot was 12 degrees (Fahrenheit) cooler!
What made the coated parking spot cooler? The coating the students used reflects sunlight. That means the Sun’s heat bounces off the paint instead of soaking into it. This gave the students the idea to put the coating on their playground.
“It’s been really cool to find out…the different temperatures you see different days,” eighth grader Paris Howard told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It’s definitely made me think more…of how our climate is changing.”
Courtesy, GAF (StreetBond ® pavement coatings, a GAF product and part of Standard Industries)
Workers put a special coating on a play area at SAE School.
Now that the playground has the special coating, it doesn’t just look cool. It IS cool. It’s a much more comfortable place to run around and play. That’s important, especially since climate change is causing the air to get warmer.
The coating just might be a fun way to make outdoor play a little more awesome.
