Earth and Sky - Sound Symphony

Focus: Sound waves, produced by vibrating objects, play important roles in the lives of animals, from warning of danger, to attracting mates, to finding food.

Materials Checklist
Sound Pantomime (common objects that produce sounds, tape of animal sounds, tape player)
What Is Sound? (rubber bands, paint sticks)
Sound Waves and Eardrums (plastic wrap, coffee cans, rubber bands, colored sugar, tuning forks, pictures of human and other animal ears)
Sound Match (sets of 10 paired film canisters filled with beans, rice, screws, salt, cornstarch, pebbles, bells, paper clips, etc.)
Hanger Banger (metal coat hangers, string, scissors, metal spoons, optional metal cake racks)
Stop the Bell (alarm clock or egg timer, cookie tin, plastic lunch box, suitcase filled with clothes, pillow, or soundproofing material)
Sound Search (Sound Search cards, clipboards, pencils)
Sharing Circle (noisy snack food)

Supplemental Reference Materials (Decibel Scale, Sound Search cards, Tuning Forks and Sound, Animal Ears Drawing, How We Hear, Human Ear Diagram, Sound Pantomime by Chris Runcie (pdf file), Puppet show script courtesy of South Burlington ELF volunteers)

Additional Reading/Resources
Sound Science by Etta Kaner, Addison Wesley, New York, 1991.
Science for Fun: Hearing Sounds by Gary Gibson, Copper Beech, Brookfield, CT, 1995.
What's That Sound? (Science Solves It!) by Mary Lawrence, Kane Press, New York, NY 2002.
What is a "sonic boom"?
For information on hearing loss from loud music, click here.

ELF Notes - Template for newsletter on Sound Symphony * Word document * pdf file

For Younger Children
Many of the activities in VINS's new Small Wonders book can be used in ELF, too. To find appropriate activities for children aged 3-6, click here.

Teaching Suggestions

If there are latex allergies in the school (the school nurse might know), latex-free substitutes for elastic bands and balloons are available. An Internet search for "latex-free balloons" or "latex-free office products" will give you many options.

Sound Pantomime
You might choose to turn this activity into a sound bingo game by creating a card that includes illustrations of the different kinds of sounds that the children will be hearing – kids then cover the correct picture when they identify that sound being made behind the puppet theater.

Check out the puppet show scripts included with ELF materials. One was written to accompany the Pantomime activity and audio tape; one was written to use in place of it.

What Is Sound?
After students determine that vibrating objects create sound waves, ask if they can change the sounds made by the rubber bands or paint sticks by varying the amount of the stick projecting from the edge of a desk or by changing the length of the rubber band. What changes do they notice? The rate at which these things vibrate is called their "pitch." One factor in determining the pitch of a vibrating body is its length: the longer it is, the lower the pitch. But as you pull (lengthen) the rubber band, the pitch gets higher. Why? Another factor in determining pitch is weight: if a vibrating object is made heavier, its rate of vibration is slowed. You make the rubber band thinner as you pull it tauter.
Now have the kids string a rubber band between their two feet. Keeping their feet the same distance apart (and thus the weight of the band constant), pinch the band with two fingers at varying points and pluck with the other hand.

Sound Waves and Eardrums
The tuning forks should be struck LIGHTLY.

In addition to having students clap their hands over the sugar, you might have them tap a metal spoon on the bottom of a tuna fish can held over the eardrum set up. Kids may think the clapping makes the air move and the sugar moves because of that, not because of sound waves. The spoon and can really shows the idea of sound waves traveling. After that you can add the cool tuning forks!

One volunteer used the group to make a living ear drum. She set up 2 people to be the outer ear, 4 more for the ear canal, 3 for the bones, several were the cochlea and had to hold hands and curl around in a spiral, others were nerves and one was the brain. Then she had a person make a sound and the kids had to react as it traveled to the brain and the "brain" would say what the sound was. For example, one time someone barked, we passed a hand squeeze from the outer ear up the ear drum to the brain. When the squeeze reached the brain, that student said, "dog barking!" It was great fun and a great interactive “visual” to go along with the human ear diagram we use.

You might use a slinky to show how sound waves travel.

Tap the tuning forks on a hard surface and then put in water so kids can really hear the sound and see the vibrations.

Hanger Banger
In addition to metal coathangers, try a metal dustpan.

Sound Search
If you are in a city environment, spend extra time trying to distinguish sounds from nature vs. man-made sounds. What creates the most noise? (Traffic, most likely) How might the man-made noise be problematic for city animals? (It might interfere with their ability to communicate warnings or find mates, e.g. birds that sing to attract a mate or call to their young)

Clap for Echoes
Younger children can have trouble clapping loud enoug to get an echo. Try clapping wooden blocks together instead.

Additional stations
You might want to include the Hands-On Nature extension activities "Why Two Ears" and "Bat and Moth" (p. 277) as stations.

Ahead of time, string one puffed wheat on a thread, making one string per tuning fork. Have students slide the wheat past the tines of a non-vibrating tuning fork. Now have them gently strike the tuning fork and try sliding the wheat through a vibrating tuning fork. Every child will want a turn at this!

Bring in a guitar and have everyone sing a familiar song while you play. Vibrating strings, vibrating vocal cords.

Demonstrating Pitch:
Fill a glass about half full of water. Strike the side of the glass with a pencil and have the students listen to the pitch. Add a bit more water, strike the glass and listen again. What do you hear? The fuller the glass (the heavier), the lower the pitch.
Set up a series of glass soda bottles on a table with different amounts of water in each. Try blowing across the top of the bottles. What do you hear? The lowest note has the longest column of air.

For Older Students
Talk about the concept of noise pollution and unpleasant noise as well as the general psychological aspects of sound.

Snacks
How about including loud crunchy food (carrot sticks or peanut butter in celery sticks), soft food (marshmallows or Jello jigglers), and slurpy foods (hot cocoa or yogurt smoothies).

Sharing Circle
Ask each student to tell their favorite sound (e.g. children's laughter, rain on a tin roof, etc.)

Learning Goals

Concepts/Ideas

• Sound is created when an object vibrates and causes the air around it to vibrate as well. The vibrations of compressed and expanded air are called sound waves.
• Sound waves travel through many substances other than air. They travel at different rates through different materials.
• When sound waves encounter an obstacle in their path they may go around, travel through, be absorbed, or be reflected.
• Sound waves move through the air and can cause membranes, like eardrums, to vibrate.
• Animal ears come in many forms. All are designed to receive and interpret vibrations.
• The ability to make sound and to distinguish among the many sounds in the environment helps animals, including humans, to survive.

Vocabulary: sound, vibrations, sound waves, echo, ear, eardrum (definitions)

Skills

• Contrasting common sounds using only one's hearing.
• Discovering through play how sound is produced when objects vibrate.
• Using tools and models to observe how sound waves move through the air and can cause membranes, like eardrums, to vibrate.
• Comparing how well sound travels through or is reflected or absorbed by different materials.
• Comparing the variety of sounds heard outdoors.

Grade Expectations:
Grades PK-K People and other animals can make and hear sounds.

Grades 1-2 (S29, S30) Animals have ears that enable them to receive sound plus the ability to interpret it. Vibrating objects cause sound. Sound travels through air, water, and solid objects.

Grades 3-4 (S29, S30) Animals' ability to make and interpret sounds helps them to survive in the places they live.
Different kinds of objects and materials cause different vibrations.

Grades 5-6 (S29) Sound is produced by vibrations in materials that set up wavelike disturbances that spread away from the source. Sound waves travel at different rates through different materials and may be absorbed, transmitted or deflected by objects in the path of the waves.

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