SAN DIEGO — Experts warn the hot and humid conditions we’ve been experiencing lately aren't just impacting how we feel, but when it comes to kids, how they learn.
"I was just very uncomfortable and constantly had to focus in such discomfort,” said Jordan Pinckney, a senior at Castle Park High School in Chula Vista.
While classrooms at Castle Park do have air conditioning, Pinckney says the transition from outside to inside during this heat wave has been brutal.
"I feel disgusting when I'm sweating outside and I sit in a classroom to have that stuff drying back on me," said Pinckney.
His experience isn't surprising, says UC San Diego Professor Joshua Graff Zivin.
"We're talking about real impairment in cognitive performance," said Graff Zivin.
Graff Zivin has authored several studies on this topic, specifically how weather impacts students' learning and test scores.
"Before the 80's, everyone seems fine. Cold doesn't seem to matter that much. Once we're in the 80's, we see detriments in performance and those detriments get bigger and bigger as the temperature gets hotter," said Graff Zivin.
Graff Zivin says research shows weather can impact students of all ages, starting from elementary school through college.
One example is a study that originated in China looking at how students there performed on the national college entrance exam.
"It's given the same week every year and obviously, the country is very large so some years, some regions are hot and some years other regions are hot. If you look at the evidence over many many years, it looks like those who get a bad draw and take the test on a hot week do worse, and get deprived on going to the most elite universities in the country," said Graff Zivin.
As for why kids do worse in the heat, Graff Zivin says lack of concentration and focus plays a role, but it's more physiological than anything else.
“Chemicals are moving back and forth to tell our neurons what to do and it turns out the performance of our brain is sensitive to temperature," said Graff Zivin.
He says with global warming, more extreme heat waves will become the norm here in San Diego.
And while investments in infrastructure such as air conditioning will help, he suggests schools be more flexible when it comes to scheduling tests, similar to how some surf competitions are planned.
"You can imagine saying the exam is gonna be in this three-week window, but we're gonna pay attention to the weather forecast and decide when exactly you're gonna take this exam to give you the best opportunity to perform as well as you can," said Graff Zivin.
Jordan Pinckney likes that idea, saying when it's this hot, anything to alleviate the stress of taking a test in these conditions would be a welcome change.
"The teeter totter of weather changes doesn't help at all when it comes to achieving academic success."
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