Curated OER
Sound Waves
Using a karaoke machine, a guitar, and other devices, learners explore the way sound waves travel. Using this hands on approach, learners can get a better understanding of wavelength, frequency, and more.
Curated OER
Hooke's Law, Vibrations, Mechanical Waves, and Sound
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...
LABScI
Acoustics: The Sound Lab
If the delay between a sound and its echo is less than 1/10th of a second, the human ear can’t distinguish it. Through the use of a Slinky, rubber band guitar, and straws, scholars explore where sound comes from and how it travels. Whole...
Curated OER
Sound
Students identify sources and importance of sound, discuss sounds heard on way to school, explain why sound waves can be "seen", and participate in various classroom activities and experiments that illustrate how sound travels.
Science 4 Inquiry
Musical Vibes with Palm Pipes
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...
Curated OER
Sounds Like Science-Guitars
Learners demonstrate the relationship between a sound and its frequency. In this sound and frequency lesson, students use an old tennis racket and nylon fishing line to create a guitar. Learners observe the pitch and frequency.
Curated OER
Making a Musical Instrument
Students determine how music is produced through sound waves and how instruments produce music differently than others. They construct flutes out of straws and explore how to adjust the sound.
Curated OER
Sounds Like Science - Guitars
Students discover that all movement produces sound waves but not all sounds can be heard with the human ear. They experiment with a variety of substances to see which are audible and which are inaudible.
Curated OER
The Cigar Box Guitar
Pupils correlate string tension with sound pitch. They describe how string mass (thickness) effects sound pitch and demonstrate an understanding of the physics of the acoustic guitar. They see that sound is produced by vibrations.
Curated OER
Changing Sounds
Students listen to sound. In this changing sounds activity, students play instruments to help them hear volume and pitch. Students use the interactive whiteboard to experiment how change can make sounds go higher or lower.
Curated OER
Music
Third graders study sound waves and vibrations. They sing a silly round in three parts.
Curated OER
Mathematical Models with Applications: The Sounds of Music
Students use an electronic data-collection device to model the sound produced by a guitar string. They identify the graph of a periodic situation and use the graph to determine the period and frequency of sound waves.
Curated OER
Sizing Up Sound
Sixth graders are introduced to the concepts of sound waves and frequency. As a class, they listen to the differences between different types of instruments. To end the lesson, they practice identifying low and high pitches and playing...
Science Friday
Make a Speaker
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...
Acoustical Society of America
Musical Instruments
Mix it up and engage learners in a lesson on music and physical science. Using cups, strings, guitars, and voice, the class will experiment with sound vibration and frequency. They'll use each instrument and fill out a worksheet that...
Curated OER
Adding Trigonometric Functions
Students identify trigonometric functions. In this trigonometry lesson, students add and subtract trigonometric functions. They add sine and cosine waves and relate it to the real world.
Curated OER
Creating Musical Notation
In this creative music activity from Scientific American, students learn about musical notation and then design their own notations. Great web resource links are alsp provided