Sound

TOPIC TWO: SOUND VIBRATIONS

OBJECTIVES:

• Students will demonstrate an understanding that vibrations are related to sound production by feeling and seeing such vibrations through exploration.
• Students will demonstrate the ability to describe differences in sounds by using terms such as “pitch” and “loudness”.
• Students will demonstrate they understand how sounds travel differently through a variety of solids and liquids and through air by asking questions and making predictions that lead them to explore and investigate how sound travels.

ACTIVITIES:

To help student’s associate sound with vibrations, students will:

• Feel for voice box vibrations when they speak.
• Observe a vibrating tuning fork when dipped in water.
• Touch a radio/stereo speaker while it is in operation.
• Snap rulers on the edge of their desk.
• Blow on a blade of grass that is held between their hands to produce a whistling sound. Encourage students to use the terms loudness and pitch when describing the sounds they hear.
• Ask children to record in writing or in drawings what they see and feel with their fingers and to state what is common to the sources of sound.
• Build a sound wave detector.
• Make a sound viewer.
• Show children using a ticking clock or buzzer that sounds can be heard through a variety of materials For example: putting it in water, sand, and a wooden box. Have students listen to a ticking clock on a wooden table by putting their ear to the table, putting their ear to a radiator and hearing the water circulating (make sure it isn’t hot!).

Materials:

§         Balloons

§         Salt

§         Pencil

§         Paper

§         Tape

§         Tuning fork

§         Ruler

§         Grass

§         Objects that ticks (preferably one that is waterproof)

§         Stereo  

How to Build a Sound Wave Detector

Stretch balloon across the top of the empty coffee can.

Secure with a rubber band. Make sure the balloon is stretched tight. Sprinkle salt on the balloon.

Stand close to the sound wave detector. Bang on the empty carton or jug a few times with a pencil or ruler to make sound vibrations.
Watch the grains of salt closely.

Assessment:

Ask children to make a table showing the materials tested and whether the sound traveled through them well and discuss what their results show.

Evaluate students based on their completion of the sound wave detector and the sound viewer.

Observe students verbal descriptions of sound.

Add any work to the portfolio that you can collect and assess on an ongoing basis.