Acoustical
Society of America
Exploring Sound
Physics Index
The
following lessons have been gone through two rounds of testing in the classroom
but not all have been formatted as “Lesson Plans”.
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.
Sound
and Wave Basics Homework .doc, .pdf
Students
first explore the PhET Interactive Simulation “Wave on a String” focusing on
amplitude and frequency as well as what factors affect wave speed. Then they
investigate the PhET “Sound” simulation to learn how amplitude and frequency
affect a sound wave. Finally students
watch the Khan Academy video “Introduction to Waves”.
Waves
Stand alone lesson pptx,
pdf
This
lesson follows up on the Sound and Wave Basics Homework, introduces the terminology
used to describe waves, investigates what factors impact wave speed,
demonstrates interference, and provides multiple ways to think about natural
frequency and resonance.
Investigating
How Music is Made Laboratory activity pdf, doc
Students
make their own straw instruments and cup instruments to investigate how music
is made. They also blow over the top of
bottles and investigate an acoustic and electric guitar. I used Generalizing Musical Instruments in class
as a necessary follow up to this lab.
Generalizing
How Musical Instruments Work Designed to follow Investigating How
Music is Made Lab. .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.
Simple
Harmonic Motion Stand alone lesson .ppt,
.pdf
Slides for an interactive lesson on
simple harmonic motion including peer instruction and in class practice
problems. Approximately
70 minutes of material over restoring force, period and frequency of springs
and pendula, equations of motion for SHM and
conservation of energy.
Simple
Harmonic Motion Lab Laboratory activity .pdf, .doc
Students
investigate a spring, a pendulum and pasta w/raisins or marshmallows to
determine if the period depends on length, amplitude and mass for each
oscillator. Finally students are asked to determine if the pasta w/ raisins or
marshmallows is more like a spring or pendulum (the answer is not what they
expect!)
Speed of Sound Stand alone lesson .ppt
, .pdf20
– 30 minute set of slides with peer instruction on the topic of the speed of
waves on strings and how helium and sulfur hexafluoride affect the voice. Brings back the concept of
resonance.
Standing
Waves Lab Laboratory activity .pdf,
.doc
Standing
waves are studied experimentally with vibrators and a string. Students are
tasked with figuring out a method for determining the density of their string
and then comparing results with the rest of the class. At the end they write up a plan for a more
ideal experiment to determine the mass density of their string.
Graphing Waves and Ultrasound Lesson
w/ applications .ppt, .pdf
This set of slides lasts 20 minutes
and reviews traveling wave pulses and then introduces the idea of translating
from position graphs to history graphs.
Medical applications of sound waves are presented next and then a brief
introduction to electromagnetic waves and how they relate to sound. Used with CT focused
Ultrasound article.
Sound rather than Sight Small
group Activity .doc,
.pdf
One student at a time is blindfolded
and must use only their sense of hearing to identify and locate objects. 30 –
40 minutes
Echolocation
Homework Homework
Activity .doc, .pdf
Students
are asked to watch a couple of videos about humans that use echolocation and
then visit the Discovery of Sounds In The Sea website
to hear dolphins and whales use echolocation.
Intensity
Level Small Group Activity .doc,
.pdf
Students
use sound level meters to investigate how sound level drops off with distance.
20- 25 minutes.
Intensity and Intensity Level Lesson
.ppt, .pdf
50 minutes of slides with group
discussion. Slides include a review of
echolocation homework and then discuss intensity and intensity level as well as
loudness. Example problems to be worked
as a class are included.
The Doppler Effect Stand-alone
activity .doc, .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 – surprisingly effective.
Doppler Effect and Sonic Booms lesson .ppt
, .pdfCombination
of problems and conceptual ideas related to the Doppler Effect and Sonic Booms
including Mach number calculations.
Introduction to Standing Waves follows.
Waves
and Harmonics Laboratory activity pdf, doc
This
lab uses Fourier: Making Waves PhET
simulation to investigate auditory perception of various combinations of
harmonics as well as how waves add.
Perception stand
alone lesson pptx
This
power point includes more than an hour of slides which have a section on speech
intelligibility, acoustician careers, follow up to the
Waves and Harmonics lab and the Sound rather than Sight activity found above.
Elephant
Acoustics homework or take home exam docx
This
assignment consists of a series of conceptual questions about a website article
on elephant acoustics encouraging the students to connect what they’ve learned
about the physics of sound with how elephants hear and make sound.
Spring
to Another World Laboratory activity pdf
This
lab is by Hewitt and Baird’s Conceptual Physics Laboratory Manual. It uses the PhET simulation Masses and Springs to investigate
Hooke’s Law. I used it and Simple
Harmonic Motion together in one lab period.
Sound Waves Stand alone activity lesson, teacher notes
Students use the Sound simulation from the PhET Interactive
Simulations to understand how different sounds are modeled, described and
produced. They also design ways to
determine the speed, frequency, period and wavelength of a sound.
Sound Lab using LabPro Stand alone activity lesson, teacher
notes
Sound Lab using Xplorer GLX Stand
alone activity
lesson, teacher
notes
These two lessons each
use a sound probe to investigate how wave patterns from different sounds look,
including their voices and their straw instruments.
Peer-Instruction type
questions for sound Selection of clicker
questions related to above activities ppt
Please forward any questions or
comments to:
Wendy Adams
Education Coordinator
Acoustical Society of America
Visit our website at www.exploresound.org for other classroom
resources such as career
profiles of acousticians, fun educational
videos (look for the YouTube icon) and new lesson plans as we get them
developed!