Learning Cycle Lesson Plan
Math and Science Methods
Lora Lee Hensel
Sound
and Statistics
Standards:
Science (Sound, Analysis)
Math (Probability & Graphing, Problem-Solving)
Learning Styles: Gardner; Kinesthetic, Linguistic,
Inter and Intra personal, Spatial.
Goal: Students will explain what sound is (a
vibration) and that it travels (sound waves) with different speeds
through different mediums.
Time: 3-30 minute class periods
Background Information:
Sound is energy. Sound is created by vibrations. You can't
see sound, but it moves in waves, kind of like the ripples you
see when you drop a rock into a pond. Plucking, banging, whispering,
and yelling are all made by vibrations, yet they all sound really
different. Differences in sound depend on the height of the waves
and the distance between waves. Loud sounds are made by tall
waves, while soft sounds are made by short waves. Low- pitched
sounds have big gaps between waves, while high-pitched sounds
have waves that are bunched together. A sound wave is a series
of compressions and rarefactions. Compression: where there are
many molecules together. Rarefactions: where molecules are spread
far apart.
Source for background information:
Primarily Physics: Investigations in Sound, Light and Heat
Energy. AIMS Activities. Grades K-3 1994. ISBN # 1-881431-46-0.
www.billnye.com
www.science-tech.nmstc.ca
Prerequisite Information:
Students must have experienced sound and have some experience
with designing an experiment. Students must have studied molecules.
Exploration
Phase
- Objectives:
Students will learn that sound is produced from a vibrating object.
- Materials: guitar or other stringed instruments,
wooden rulers, listen to sounds worksheet, popsicle stick and
paper painted with black and white stripes.
- Introduction of Lesson:
- Procedure:
- Using the guitar, strum a song. Ask a student to come to
the front of the class and stop the sound anytime. After the
student stops the guitar by pushing on the strings, ask him/her
to describe what was felt when the strings were touched. Discuss
the vibration with the children.
- Take the ruler and place it on the table, leaving approximately
6 inches off the table. Strike the ruler on the end and ask a
student to describe what happened. Explain that for it to create
sound the vibrations would have to go back and forth at least
16 times.
- Ask students to clench a popsicle stick with their teeth.
They are to pluck the end of the stick and listen. Ask the students
to change the position of their teeth on the stick and try again.
- Review with the students that vibrations can not only be
felt, they can also be seen.
- Take a piece of paper, which is painted in black and white
stripes, and ask a student to assist in strumming the guitar.
Run the paper up and down on top of the frets but under the strings
of the guitar in order for the vibrations to be seen.
Evaluation:
2. Invention
Phase
- Objectives:
Materials: metal coat hanger with 8-12 inch
string tied from the loop of the metal hanger, table top Procedure:
- Vibrations can also be heard
- Without vibrations there can be no sound of any kind
- Using the sheets completed in the introduction of the lesson,
read a sound from each students sheet.
- You could hear the sounds you wrote on these sheets, but
you couldn't see them. Today we will learn why.
- We know that what created this sound (name one) vibrated.
Explain to the students that vibrations create sound waves.
A sound wave is molecules that are moved through the air by
the vibration. When the molecules are close together they
are called compressions and when they are far apart they are
called rarefactions.
- Direct students to place hands together to experience compression.
- Vibrations cause sound waves that look like the waves created
by a slinky.
- Use 2 students to demonstrate the terms compression and rarefaction
using the slinky.
- Discuss with students that through the sounds we heard earlier,
we know that sound waves do travel through a gas which is air.
- Sound waves also travel through solids.
- Can sound waves travel through this table?
- Ask the students to take turns laying down their heads on
the table and having a designated student tap the table with
a fingernail while the others listen to the loudness. Encourage
students to experiment with tapping the table while not laying
their head on the table and then discuss the difference.
- Or through the hangers?
- Demonstrate what will be done with the hangers and strings.
(The students will bounce the hangers off the table or chair
while the end of the string is placed inside their ear. This
allows the students to hear a resonating tone that will likely
surprise them).
What did you hear? Students are to listen to
the hanger without the string in the ear. They are then to compare
and contrast. What do you wonder about that? (the sound
waves are re-created in the cup with more of the original wave
created by the hanger than when heard through the air). Review:
Do the hanger experiment again, but stop the sound. What were
you stopping? (Vibration).
Evaluation:
Direct the students to write in their sense journals two sentences
that tell what they heard and what they learned from hearing
the differences in the sound. Students are to draw a picture
in the journal of the rarefaction and compression portion of
the sound wave.(entries should include a description of a ringing
tone, and understand that the sound traveled through the string.
The student drawing is to show a sound wave with compression
and rarefaction labeled.)
Expansion Phase
Objective:
Students will explore changes in sound through different
mediums and shapes.
Materials: wires, rope, fishing wire, thread,
dental floss, various disposable cups, metal and glass cups.
Procedure:
- Direct students to design an experiment.
- Introduce the statistical concept of sample and population.
Define sample and population. Explain that it is difficult to
decide on the proper sample size.
- Demonstration: Using a bag of mixed candy, pull out a piece
of candy and describe it as the sample, with the entire bag of
candy being the population. Ask the students if having 1 piece
of candy would tell us about the bag or population of candy.
Continue adding until the students feel a proper sample has been
taken.
- What do you wonder about what you heard?
- Put students in pairs and instruct them to write down together
what they wondered about what they heard.
- Direct students to design an experiment that will help them
to answer one of the questions that they have. The students are
to write up what variable they will be altering along with their
hypothesis and their procedure.
- Students conduct the experiment using any of the materials
provided.
- Instruct students to write up their results in their journal.
Evaluation:
- Students are to share with the class the results of their
experiment. Allow free discussion among students.
- Review the journal pages the students have written about
their experiment. Look for student understanding that sound travels.