Standards-Based Outcomes (MDE):
Science:
I. Construct New Scientific and Personal Knowledge
Content Standard I, 1: All students will ask questions that help them learn about the world; design and conduct investigations using appropriate methodology and technology; learn from books and other sources of information; communicate their findings using appropriate technology; and reconstruct previously learned knowledge.
1. Generate scientific questions about the world based on observation.
2. Design and conduct simple investigations.
II. Reflect on the Nature, Adequacy and Connections Across Scientific Knowledge
Content Standard II, 1: All students will analyze claims for their scientific merit and explain how scientists decide what constitutes scientific knowledge; how science is related to other ways of knowing; how science and technology affect our society; and how people of diverse cultures have contributed to and influenced developments in science.
1. Develop an awareness of the need for evidence in making decisions scientifically. (Elementary)
Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of claims, arguments, or data. (MS)
IV. Use Scientific Knowledge from the Physical Sciences in Real-World Contexts
Content Standard IV, 4: All students will describe sounds and sound waves; explain shadows, color, and other light phenomena; measure and describe vibrations and waves; and explain how waves and vibrations transfer energy.
2. Explain how sounds are made. (Elementary)
Prior Knowledge:
- Students must have a basic awareness of the need for evidence in making decisions.
- Students must know that a wave is a traveling disturbance that carries energy from one place to another.
- Students must know that a vibration is any movement that follows the same path repeatedly.
- Students must know that a medium is the matter or substance through which a wave is transmitted.
- Students need to know that the difference between mechanical and electromagnetic waves is that mechanical waves require a medium.
- Students need to know that all waves have crests (highest point) and troughs (lowest point), amplitude (maximum movement from rest), wavelength (distance between two consecutive points on a wave), and frequency (number of waves per unit of time).
- Students must know there are three types of waves: transverse (a wave in which the motion of the medium is at right angles to the direction of the wave), longitudinal (a wave that consists of compressions and rarefactions and is parallel to the direction of the wave), and surface waves (occur at the surface between two different mediums).
Cue Set:
- Vibrating Rulers Activity:
- The teacher passes out a ruler to each student.
- The student places the ruler on his/her desk so half of the length is over the edge. With one hand holding down the ruler half that is on the desk, the student uses the other hand to fling the ruler half that is off the desk up and down, making a “boing” noise.
- The teacher asks students what they feel or hear. Then the students each place one ear on top of the desks. The teacher asks whether they feel or hear anything different from before.
- In the form of warm-up questions, the teacher poses these questions:
- How are sounds made?
- How do you hear sounds?
- How does sound travel?
- Students predict and write their answers. The group then discusses the predictions.
- The teacher then explains to the students that they will next investigate how sounds are made.
Best Shot Instruction:
Day One
- Students view the CD Science Court: Is Sound Made of Waves? Trial Part 1.
- Working in cooperative teams of four, students investigate vibrations, sounds, and sound waves by answering six questions found on the four Information Sheets that are included with the CD-ROM. Each sheet contains a different quote from a key participant in the court trial, thus each student has information to contribute to the group and answer the six questions.
- After students have prepared their answers, the class members as a whole group discuss the six questions one at a time.
- The teacher closes by asking the students, “How are sounds made?” (He/she makes sure that they understand that vibrations make sounds.)
Day Two
- The teacher begins with a cue set consisting of these warm-up questions:
- Where do sounds come from?
- How can you find the source of a sound?
- What evidence do you have that matter is vibrating?
- After some discussion, students create sound-making instruments to observe how their vibrations create sounds. Students use such materials as tuning forks, rubber bands, balloons, waxed paper and combs, and their vocal cords. Students record on charts the evidence of vibrations and descriptions of the sounds heard.
- The teacher closes by making sure the students understand that when matter (ex. metals, water, and air) vibrates, sounds are made which we can hear.
Day Three
- The teacher begins by encouraging students to predict answers to these warm-up questions:
- How do sounds move?
- How do sounds travel to our ears?
- What is vibrating for sound to reach our ears?
- Students then use slinkies to observe how sound waves travel. One student compresses one end of the slinky as another student pulls on the other end. The student compressing the slinky holds the very end of the slinky as he/she lets go of the compressed part. Students observe that the wave travels through the length of the slinky. This wave is called a longitudinal or mechanical wave. The teacher explains to students that just as this slinky wave travels through the slinky in a series of compressions, sound waves travel through a medium, whether it is air, wood, water, or metal, in the same way.
- The lesson is closed with a class discussion of how sounds are heard. We hear sounds because of sound waves, which we can not see. When matter vibrates, sound waves are created. Sound waves travel through a medium such as air, vibrating the air particles until they reach our eardrums. Sounds are then distinguished by our brains.
Reteaching and Enrichment:
Students draw a picture of the waves they observe in the slinky activity. They label the parts of the wave: the compressions (compressed parts) and rarefactions (stretched out parts). Then students draw a sound wave, labeling the crest, trough, amplitude, and wavelength.
Within the next few days, students learn how the speed of sound is determined by the temperature, elasticity, and density of the medium through which the sound travels. Also, students learn about the properties of sound, including frequency and pitch, amplitude and intensity/loudness, and the Doppler Effect. Students finish by learning about noise and music. Some play their musical instruments if possible.
Review and Closure:
As a review, the teacher checks that students understand how sound travels in waves. One method of review is to play the game, Sound Jeopardy, which is based on Jeopardy, but uses answers and questions about sound.
Assessment:
- The teams’ Information Sheet packets are evaluated for use of critical thinking skills.
- Each team is evaluated as to the completeness of their observations of the evidence of vibrations and descriptions of the sounds heard from their sound-makers.
- Students finish this unit by continuing on with Science Court Trials 2 and 3.
- At the end of the unit, students have a formal assessment to evaluate their full understanding of sound.
