Ancient people used musical pipes as early as the third millennium BCE. Young scientists explore the workings of musical pipes to better understand the relationship with frequency, length of pipe, and sound waves. They determine the...

Scholars observe the effects of microwaves before starting a series of eight hands-on investigations. Then they sort waves by wavelengths and learn what connects microwaves to visible light to water waves and more to finish the...

Would an evil mastermind trying to take over the universe use explosives in space? A video that is part of a larger series approaches this question with physics of course! She explains the role of the atmosphere, the properties of waves,...

A well-designed, comprehensive, and attractive slide show supports direct instruction on how sonar and echolocation work. Contained within the slides are links to interactive websites and instructions for using apps on a mobile device to...

Listen in as Mia and Sam expound on sound. It is caused by vibrations and travels in waves. It has the qualities of pitch, frequency, and volume. This hip animation displays a graph to depict the frequency and amplitude of sound waves....

Reflection is the bouncing of waves. Reflection can be used simply as entertainment or to guide ocean navigators. As your physics aces begin learning about waves, this resource would be valuable to show them that all of the different...

Students design and construct a listening device that will allow them to listen to the sound generated by specific object inside a box.

This wave and electromagnetism assignment is so thorough, it could be used as a unit exam. The first section of it covers wave concepts. The next section addresses static electricity. There is a section that deals with electric circuits....

Dangle a spring to experiment with vibration and discover if period is dependent on amplitude. Strum a guitar and adjust the strings to compare displacement and sound. Use a Slinky® and guitar strings on a ring stand to uncover the...

Young scientists investigate the scientific concepts and principles that help make common toys such as hula hoops, yo-yos, slinkies, and silly putty work. As a class, they read "Backyard Rocket Science, Served Wet" to get a look behind...

A phenomenal instructional activity on sound is here for your third graders! In it, learners engage in hands-on activities, watch video, take part in Internet activities, and complete tasks in cooperative groups in order to explore the...

Groups rotate through a series of stations and work with a partner to observe sound waves. Children describe sound in terms of pitch, volume, and frequency. To apply their new knowledge, the class considers how these observations can...

It's the encore to a wave unit. Individuals build either a slap tube, flute, or xylophone as a culminating activity for a physics unit on waves. Scholars calculate the lengths of pipes needed to produce the specific notes for their...

Strike the right chord with a musical activity! The teacher provides a lecture on the mechanics of a pan flute. Pupils build their own pan flutes by using straws and calculating the lengths to create a scale. After cutting the straws to...

Resonate with the class. By watching a couple video, pupils realize that sound requires a medium to travel and can break glass. They then listen to a lecture on resonance and work through a lab to calculate the speed of sound using...

Take a stretch, but don't wave goodbye. An interesting resource provides everything needed to present an introductory lesson on waves. Teachers present a PowerPoint defining the types of waves and their characteristics. Pupils use a...

Add a little color to the universe. Learners recreate images of the galaxies using real data and Photoshop software. They display their images in a Hubble tuning fork diagram by classifying and categorizing their shapes.

Using a home-built hydrophone, pupils investigate how things sound in water. Learners listen to sounds created in air and then compare that to the same sound picked up by the hydrophone. Individuals compare the loudness and the pitch of...

Squillo, squillo, squillo! Opera audiences would not be able to hear the arias in The Marriage of Figaro, or any other opera for that matter, without the aid of the squillo. A short video explores the techniques opera singers use to...

Catch the fast wave. Using a computer simulation, pupils experiment with amplitude, frequency, damping, and tension of a string to determine which affects the speed of the wave. Learners record the observations to determine their...

Here comes the sound. After watching a couple videos demonstrating and explaining the Doppler Effect, learners develop their own understanding of the phenomenon. Scholars draw a sound wave and observe how the perception of the wave...

Make science come in loud and clear. Pupils learn about how a speaker works by building one. The scholars first learn about electromagnetic fields by building an electromagnet. Using that knowledge, they build a crude speaker using a...

Textbooks come in all shapes, sizes, and media these days. An electronic textbook resource offers Physics materials for a full course. The text offers an explanation of physics topics as well as examples of calculations and reading...