Sound Stations Exploring Sound
Station 1 How does sound travel through solids? 1 zip lock bag 3 cups of sand 1 Pencil 1. Fill the zip lock bag with 3 cups of sand. Get as much air out of the bag as possible. 2. Lay the bag flat on the desk or table. 3. Place your ear on the bag and put the tip of your index finger in your other ear. 4. Have a group member tab the desk or table a 30 cm length away with the eraser end of the pencil 5. Record your findings in the recording chart.
Station 2 How does sound travel through liquids? 1 zip lock bag 3 cups of water 1 Pencil 1. Fill the zip lock bag with 3 cups of water. Get as much air out of the bag as possible. 2. Lay the bag flat on the desk or table. 3. Place your ear on the bag and put the tip of your index finger in your other ear. 4. Have a group member tab the desk or table a 30 cm length away with the eraser end of the pencil 5. Record your findings in the recording chart.
Station 3 How does sound travel through gases? 1 zip lock bag 1 Pencil 1. Fill the zip lock bag with air. 2. Lay the bag on the desk or table. 3. Place your ear on the bag and put the tip of your index finger in your other ear. 4. Have a group member tab the desk or table a 30 cm length away with the eraser end of the pencil 5. Record your findings in the recording chart.
Station 4 Exploring Pitch: How can you make different sounds with a ruler? 30 cm hard ruler Desk or table 1. Hold the ruler firmly so that 8 cm of the ruler hang over the edge of the desk. 2. Push the hanging end of the ruler with your thumb and quickly let go. 3. Record your findings in the recording chart. 4. Repeat steps 1-3 with 16 cm of the ruler hanging over the edge. 5. Repeat steps 1-3 with 24 cm of the ruler hanging over the edge.
Station 5 How is sound made? Rubber bands of different widths and lengths 1 clear plastic cup 1. Stretch a rubber band around a cup so it crosses over the top of the cup. 2. Pluck the rubber band at the top of the cup. 3. Observe what the rubber band does when it is plucked and record in the recording chart. 4. Pluck using different size rubber bands and record in the recording chart.
Station 6 Good Vibrations! 2 Wire hangers 2 or 3 metal spoons (different sizes) 2 Pencils 4 small paper cups 4 paperclips string 1. Tie two pieces of string to the coat hanger. 2. Make one hole at the bottom of each cup. 3. Push the string through the bottom of each cup, wrap the string around paperclip to ensure it does not slip back through the hole. 4. Ask a partner to gently tap the hanger with a pencil while you listen to the sound that the hanger makes. 5. Now place the cups over your ears and have a partner gently tap the hanger again. 6. Record your findings in the recording chart. 7. Hang the different size spoons from the strings and tap them with the pencil. 8. Record your findings in recording chart.
Recording Chart What did you hear? Recording Chart STATIONS 1-3 (Contents of Bag) What did you hear? Was the pitch high or low? Air (gas) Water (liquid) Sand (solid) STATION 4 (length of ruler hanging over edge) 8 cm 16 cm 24 cm STATION 5 (description of rubber band) Wide rubber band Long rubber band STATION 6 (hanger and spoons) Hanger Hanger with spoons
Reflection 1. Describe the differences in the sound you heard through the bag of air, bag of water, and the bag of sand. What do your observations tell you about whether vibrations travel best through gases, liquids, or solids? 2. What happened to the sound when you changed the length of the ruler 3. How far off the edge is the ruler when it sound the lowest? 4. What causes the difference in sound as the length of the ruler hanging over the edge changes? 5. How does the sound change when using different size rubber bands? 6. How did the metal spoons sound compared to the hanger? a compass