Download Guiding Activity - edim

David Echelmeier
EDIM 502- Project-Based Learning
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Guiding Activity #2:
Sounds traveling through materials
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Purpose:
Students will gain knowledge on how sound travels through different materials and
students will identify which medium (solid, liquid or gas) is the easiest for sound
waves to travel through
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Guiding Questions:
How does sound travel through different materials?
Why does sound travel faster through some materials than others?
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Standards Addressed (Virginia Standards for 5th grade)
SOL 5.2 The student will investigate and understand how sound is created and
transmitted, and how it is used.
Key concepts include
a) compression waves;
b) vibration, compression, wavelength, frequency, amplitude;
c) the ability of different media (solids, liquids, and gases) to transmit sound; and
d) uses and applications of sound waves
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Objectives:
- Students will explore how sound travels through different materials
- Students will identify the materials in which sound travels slowest and fastest
through
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Background information for the teacher:
Sound is a type of energy produced and transmitted by matter that vibrates.
Sound waves move through a medium such as a solid, liquid, or gas, and the medium
vibrates back and forth and transfers the sound energy.
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Sound travels at different speeds depending upon what type of material it is
traveling through. Sound travels fastest through solids, slower through liquids,
and slowest through gases. Sound travels fastest through solids since the
molecules of solids are packed tightly together and can transmit the vibration
energy the fastest. Sound cannot move through a vacuum such as outer space like
light can.
Key Vocabulary:
- sound
- wave
- wavelength
- vibrations
- media
- solid
- liquid
- gas
- pitch
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Learning Opportunities (Adapted from Fourth Grade Physics of Sound & Virginia
Science Standards)
Activators:
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- Brainstorm the word wave and list different types of waves
- Demonstrate how a wave moves by having students stand in a circle holding and
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raising the connected hands as the teacher goes around the circle. Then, have
students let go of the hands and bump into each person as the wave travels to
demonstrate how sound waves actually move.
Review that sound waves are caused by vibrations and ask students to hold one
hand against his/her through and hum. Ask students to draw or write what they
think is happening.
Pose the questions “What does this teach us about sound? What causes
sounds?” Have students record in their science notebook.
Ask students to discuss which types of matter sound can travel through (solids,
liquids, and gases). Then, discuss if sounds travels at different speeds through
different materials, such as a solid or a gas? Pose the guiding question to launch
the investigation: “How does sound travel through different materials?” Explain
that the students will be rotating with partners to investigate the guiding
question at the different stations.
Explorations (Based on Fourth Grade Physics of Sound Unit, see guided
resources):
- Students will travel through work stations exploring how sound travels. Prepare
the following materials at work stations to explore how sound travels through
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different materials. Students will record answers to questions in their science
notebook.
- Sound through solids- string: Set up the tin-can string telephone.
- Prompts at station: Talk softly with your partner standing a short
distance away. How does it sound? Is it easy to hear your partner?
Talk softly using the telephone. How does it sound? Is it easier to hear
your partner now?
- Use a telephone that has a longer or shorter string. Does this make a
difference?
- Use a higher or lower voice. Does this make a difference?
- Sound through solids- wood: Set up desks, dowels, tissues, and sticks.
- Prompts at station: Put your ear to the desk and have someone scratch
it. What do you hear? Sit up and scratch it again. What do you hear?
Are they the same or different?
- Wrap a tissue at the end of the fowl and tape it. Carefully hold it next
to your ear and rub the end of the stick. What do you hear? Now, pull
the stick away from your ear and rub. What do you hear? Are they the
same or different? Does sound travel differently through wooden
objects or through the air?
Sound through water: Set up stethoscopes, water, and basins
- Prompts at station: Tap your fingers in the air. What does it sound like?
What happens when you tap your fingers closer and closer to your ear?
- Disinfect the ear pieces of the stethoscope and then have your partner
put it on. Now tap your fingers together. What does it sound like? What
happens when you tap your fingers closer and closer to the
stethoscope?
- Tap your fingers together under the water in the basin. What do you
hear?
- Have your partner put on the stethoscope and put the diaphragm under
the water. Now tap your fingers together under the water in the basin.
What do they hear? Is it different than in the air?
- What is it like for a fish in a fishbowl when someone taps on the
outside?
Sounds through air: Set up tuning forks and wooden blocks
- Prompts at station: Listen to the sound that the tuning fork makes when
you hold it close to your ear. What do you hear?
- Have your partner strike the tuning fork and hold the paper tube to
your ear while they place the tuning fork inside the tube. What do you
hear now? Is it different? Why? Repeat steps so that your partner can
hear what it sounds like.
- What happens if you put the tuning fork farther up inside the tube
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while you are listening? Does it sound different?
Discussion:
- Discuss the findings at each station about how sound travels, its speed and
clarity. Reflect on the guiding question “How does sound travel through
different materials?”
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Extensions (Adapted from Fourth Grade Physics of Sound & Virginia Science
Standards)
Visual
- To visually show how sound travels faster through solids, the do the following:
Line students up into two lines. The students in the first line hold hands with
the person next to them, but in the second line they keep their hands at their
sides. The first person in each line squeezes the hand of the person next to
them all the way down the line and the student at the end of each line picks up
an object to show the pulse travelled the full length of their line. This will show
the students that sound travels quicker through solid materials because their
particles are closer together. The line not holding hands will be slower because
they have to grab hands before they can squeeze.
- Model the action of molecules in a solid, liquid, and gas and explore how that
affects sound.
- Arrange dominoes to illustrate how sound would travel through the medium.
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Careers/Community
- Have students think of real-life experiences or things that have read about the
transmission of sound (sound moving in outer space, talking underwater, jobs
requiring ear protection).
- Research how echolocation works and how bats or whales communicate.
- Invite an audiologist to discuss hearing loss and hearing aids.
- Invite a speech pathologist and a sign language interpreter into class to share
how they help people whose sound source/receiver doesn’t work correctly.
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Formative Assessment:
- Have students respond to the following prompt in their science notebooks. “Why
would a railroad worker put his ear against a track? Do you think that this is a
smart way to tell if a train is coming?” Explain your thinking.
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Guided Resources:
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Echolocation
Harris, T. (n.d.). HowStuffWorks "Bats and Echolocation". HowStuffWorks.
Retrieved July 20, 2014, from http://animals.howstuffworks.com/mammals/
bat2.htm
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Fourth Grade Physics of Sound Unit
Fourth Grade Physics of Sound Unit. (n.d.). Fourth Grade Physics of Sound Unit.
Retrieved July 20, 2014, from http://cas.umt.edu/bssp/documents/cuturally
%20congruent%20Units/ReneeK_4th%20Grade%20Sound_Unit.pdf
Going to the Audiologist
Szymkowski, S. (2011, October 1). Going to the Audiologist. KidsHealth - the Web's
most visited site about children's health. Retrieved July 20, 2014, from http://
kidshealth.org/kid/health_problems/sight/hearing_test.html#
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How Sound Travels
How Sound Travels. (n.d.). How Sound Travels. Retrieved July 20, 2014, from
http://www.knowitall.org/nasa/flash/sound/how_sound_travels.swf
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Investigating Sound
Investigating Sound. (2012). 2012 Virginia Science Standards of Learning
Institute. Retrieved July 20, 2014, from http://www.doe.virginia.gov/instruction/
science/professional_development/2012/institute_3-5/23_3-5_Sound.pdf
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Sound in Space
Freudenrich, C. (n.d.). HowStuffWorks "Sound in Space". HowStuffWorks
Retrieved July 20, 2014, from http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/scifi10.htm