During this Unit, students will conduct several investigations focused on the properties of a sound and how a sound is produced and perceived as a sound. Through experimentation and observation, students will explore the process of how a sound begins as a vibration that travels through the three states of matter –solids, liquids, and gases – to reach the human ear, where the vibrations are transmitted as signals to the brain and translated as a sound.
Through various activities and experiments, students will discover that a sound is produced when an object vibrates. These vibrations are transmitted through matter surrounding the vibrating object as a sound wave. They will discover that a sound wave can move through gases such as the air we breathe, liquids such as water, and solids such as a table. This Unit gives students the opportunity to examine this process by creating models that duplicates how a sound is produced and heard.
Students will also investigate the properties of a sound. They will discover that the volume of a sound can be either loud or soft and change be changed by varying the amount of force applied to produce the sound.
This Unit will broaden students’ knowledge of how a sound is produced and heard, enabling them to have a greater understanding of and appreciation for the importance of the sounds they hear in their surrounding environment.
Conceptual Themes addressed in this Unit:
- Energy
- Properties of Matter