Saturday, January 30, 2010

The SOUND of Science

Over the last couple weeks we have been learning about sound in Science. The kids have had such a great time learning where sound comes from, how sound travels, how animals use sounds, and sounds that are around us. We've had lots of great explorations with sound as well. One of the fun things we did was make instruments. The kids were given a set of materials and asked to brainstorm ways they could use these materials to make sound. They worked as groups to make all kinds of things over a series of a week. We made drums, zithers, tamborines,and horns. We also made wind chimes.





















They watched as Mrs. Harbour and Ms. Peters explained how sound vibrates and travels in sound waves through a demonstration with a cup of water and a tuning fork. We could actually see the vibrations in the water! We also did a class activity that showed up how a sound wave actually moves.

Sound Waves

In a video we watched, we learned how different animals use sound waves as in echolocation. As an extension activity we brought in empty water bottles, filled them up with different amounts of water, and learned how to blow into the bottle and make sound by making the water vibrate.





The sound it made depended on how much water was in each bottle. Below are some really cool websites. We weren't able to go to all of them in class due to time but the kids would really enjoy them at home.

Find Sounds

BBC schools

Magic School Bus

Crickweb

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