Acoustical Society of America
Exploring Sound Physical Science Index
The following inquiry lessons have all been tested in the classroom with students and reviewed by experienced middle and high school teachers, middle and high school curriculum experts and physics education researchers.
Materials edited by Kelseigh Schneider
Sound and Music This is a stand-alone activity. .doc, .pdf , PowerPoint, slides.pdf, videos
Students explore the physics of sound, how the ear hears and how musical instruments work through interactive demonstrations and student activities. Video clips are included for teachers to watch a section at a time if interested.
Pre/post conceptual test of sound and music .doc, .pdf
Multiple-choice test designed to measure learning from the Sound and Music lesson. This test has been reviewed by multiple experts and master teachers as well as used with several different populations of students.
The science of Music Unit This unit is designed to use all 3 lessons:
Musical Instruments Part I Designed to follow Sound and Music..doc, .pdf
Students investigate how to make music by creating their own “straw instruments” and exploring water bottles.
Musical Instruments Part II Designed to follow Musical Instruments Part I..doc, .pdf
Students investigate how stringed instruments make music including constructing and testing their own “cup instruments”.
Generalizing How Musical Instruments Work Designed to follow Musical Instruments Part I & II. .doc, .pdf
Small group and whole class discussion lesson designed to guide students in creating a generalization about how instruments make music – source of vibration, way to change pitch, mechanism to amplify the music including resonance and sympathetic vibration.
Wave Basics Designed as homework but would also make a nice class lesson..doc, .pdf
Students explore the PhET Interactive Simulation “Wave on a String” focusing on amplitude and frequency as well as wave travel.
Anatomy of a Wave Stand-alone activity; however, I use
Wave Basics HW as prep.
.doc, .pdf, .ppt
Students take on the roles of reporters and artists to draw and describe the nature of transverse waves. Activity is followed up with an interactive presentation of longitudinal and transverse wave characteristics including resonance.
Tuning Fork Discovery Stand-alone activity.doc .pdf .
Students study a brief history of sound, examine the role of tuning forks in this history and then conduct experiments with tuning forks.
The Doppler Effect Stand-alone
activity ..pdf
Students explore the PhET Interactive simulation “Sound” and then experience the Doppler effect through watching videos and teacher demonstrations. Then students invent an explanation of why the Doppler effect happens.
Echolocation and SONAR Part
I Stand alone activity done outdoors ..doc, .pdf
Speed of Sound
Students explore the speed of sound by experiencing the delay for sound to reach them after they see it occur.
Identification from a distance
Students will try to identify objects from a variety of distances that dolphins and bats can successfully echolocate from.
Fish finding game
Students will explore what it feels like to find objects without sight by playing a game modeled after dolphin’s food-finding behavior.
Echolocation and SONAR, Part II Stand alone activity.doc, .pdf
Echolocation and SONAR Homework
Students examine what echolocation is and how it is used by humans and dolphins.
In this activity students explore the idea of how it feels to use sound only to locate objects.
Echolocation How Dolphins Use Sound Stand alone activity .doc, .pdf, .ppt, slides.pdf
Echolocation Wrap-Up Designed to follow echolocation activities .doc, .pdf, .ppt, slides.pdf
Echolocation pre and post quiz .doc, .pdf
Giant Acoustics Word Search stand alone activity .pdf
Sound Measures Stand alone lesson pdf
How Loud is Too Loud? Stand alone lesson .pdf
Students explore sound levels and exposure time for a variety of sources.
Loud Sounds Book Marks Student Project doc, pdf
Physics of Sound Resource material doc, pdf
Description of the physics of sound presented at a straight-forward conceptual level.
Dangerous Decibels Educator Resource Guide pdf
Complete set (105 pages) of Dangerous Decibels materials.
Sound Waves Stand alone activity lesson, teacher notes
Sound Lab using LabPro Stand alone activity lesson, teacher notes
Sound Lab using Xplorer GLX Stand alone activity lesson, teacher notes
Peer-Instruction type questions for sound clicker questions related to the above activities ppt