Sound day 3 & 4

These notes are a continuation of the previous post Sound day 1 & 2.

Day 3

Before our lesson, I had my student "collect instruments that make sound in different ways." Then I asked her, how would you categorize them?

Note: Trostli categorizes them as follows:

Sounds Can Be Created by Blowing

Sounds Can Be Created by Plucking, Bowing, or Striking a String

Sounds Can Be Created by Striking

Sounds Can Be Created by Rubbing

Many percussion instruments can produce notes of only one pitch. Interestingly, this is how she categorized them: instruments with more than one pitch (ukelele, thumb piano) and instruments with only one pitch (shaker eggs, claves).

We spent the rest of our time with 175 More Science Experiments to Amuse and Amaze Your Friends by Terry Cash, Steve Parker, and Barbara Taylor.

Day 3, cont.

• page 16 of book: "Looking at the Ear" diagram




• page 30 of book: read experiment protocol for "Playing the Ruler" and make a prediction based on what she observed with the ukelele (shorter strings vibrate more rapidly ie. at a higher frequency, which leads to us perceiving a higher pitch)

  Looking at the relationship between the length of the string and its pitch helped her to understand how a string instrument is tuned, and clarified the function of the tuning pegs (which she had never really understood before). The thickness of a string is also related to its pitch. If two strings are the same length, the thicker string will have a lower pitch than the thinner string. Can your student explain why?




• page 36 of book: do "Bottle Music" experiment and add it to the MLB

  you will need 5 identical glass or plastic bottles and some water
  (food coloring is optional)

  look at the air column NOT the amount of water

  a small air space vibrates more rapidly = a higher pitch

Day 4

• page 30 of book: do "Playing the Ruler" experiment

  you will need: a ruler and a table




• page 14 of book: do "Seeing Vibrations" experiment

  you will need: a drum and a few grains of rice




• page 38 of book: do "Make a Grass Squawker" experiment

  you will need: a large blade of grass




• page 28 of book: do "Hearing Through Walls" experiment

  you will need: a wall, an empty drinking glass, and a friend




• page 40 of book: do "What Is in the Box?" experiment

  you will need: a small box with a tight fitting lid, a collection of small objects (such as paper clips, pebbles, buttons, cotton balls, marbles, dried beans, rice, thumbtacks, etc.), and a friend

  we revised this to be 10 guesses instead of 5, and to allow complete answers instead of only yes or no




• add favorite experiment with household objects to MLB

HW: Do the "Make a Yogurt-Cup Telephone" experiment on page 21.

You will need two yogurt cups, scissors, a ball of string, and a friend.

This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!