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Explorations in Physics Development of a Nonscience Students’ Course on Sound and Music Explorations in Physics Collaborative Effort – – – – David Jackson, Dickinson College Priscilla Laws, Dickinson College Scott Franklin, Rochester Institute of Technology Kerry Browne, Dickinson College Funding – Dana Foundation – National Science Foundation – FIPSE FIPSE EiP Goals Enhance non-science majors scientific literacy and confidence in their ability to do science Encourage appropriate attitudes about the process of science – Science is about making sense of the world – Emphasize inquiry over authority as the primary means of acquiring scientific knowledge – Have positive experience – Learning about the world can be fun Learn to communicate scientific information – Book/Web research – Inquiry/Experiment What Makes EiP Unique? A set of stand-alone physics-oriented interdisciplinary curricular units. Each unit has a storyline that leads students to develop an understanding of some real world phenomena. Each unit blends guided inquiry and projects – ½ Guided Inquiry – 18 hours – ½ Student Projects – 18 hours EiP Units Published by Wiley Under Development – Motion, Forces, & Scientific Theories – Energy, Fuels, & Environment – Light, Sight, & Rainbows – Sound, Vibrations, & Music – Heat, Temperature, & Cloud Formation – Buoyancy, Pressure, & Flight – Charge, Magnets, & Electric Motors – Atoms, Structures and Snowflakes Storyline Guides students to learn concepts necessary to understanding a particular real world phenomena or answer a real world question. Only includes concepts that are critical to understanding the phenomena of interest. Assume that when students begin the course, they have only a basic preparation and no specific scientific knowledge of the material. Storyline: Sound, Vibrations & Music Focusing Question: What makes a note played by Jimmy Hendrix on an electric guitar sound different from the same note played by Zamfir on the pan flute? What information do students need to know in order to understand and answer this question? Storyline: Sound, Vibrations & Music Basics of Sound (production, transmission & detection – Vibrating things create sound (speaker, string, …) Relate Vibration, Frequency and Pitch – – Count the number of oscillations of a speaker at very low frequency No discussion of wavelength Storyline: Sound, Vibrations & Music Time Graphs – – Connected to speaker/microphone diaphragm motion Counting Oscillations Storyline: Sound, Vibrations & Music Frequency Graphs (FFT Graphs) – – – Begin with pure tones (sine wave/ocarina) Investigate F behavior with time graphs and counting Explore effects of changing amplitude Storyline: Sound, Vibrations & Music Notes and Scales Chords (multiple pure tones) Harmonics Storyline: Sound, Vibrations & Music Analyze a single note from several instruments – – What frequencies are present? What makes two instruments playing the same note sound different? Projects: Sound, Vibrations & Music Helium and the Human Voice – Singing in the Shower – – Measured the change in the FFT spectrum of the human voice when helium was breathed Measured the resonances of a dormitory shower. Calculated the expected resonances of the shower. Voice Passwords – – Explored how the FFT spectra of human voices differed when they said the same word. Devised an algorithm for a simplified voice password system. EiP Information Summer Workshop – June 15-20, 2003 – Application Deadline: March 15, 2003 – Contact Gail Oliver at [email protected] EiP Activity Guide – John Wiley & Sons – http://jws-edcv.wiley.com/college and search for Explorations in Physics Instructor Materials (Sept 1, 2002) – http://physics.dickinson.edu/EiP Contact info: Kerry Browne – [email protected] Storyline: Sound, Vibrations & Music Complex Chords – Students applied other skills to analyze a chord of non-pure notes