Our Sound Project

There would appear to be lots of budding little scientists in P6.  We have had a lot of fun experimenting with sound and learning lots of new information along the way.

We explored sound proofing.  We looked at which materials reflected sound and which ones absorbed sound. We then tested our knowledge by creating sound proof boxes.  We set an alarm in the box and tested how loud it was using a sound meter. It recorded the volume of the sound in decibels.

We then sound proofed our boxes and retested.  All groups were able to make the alarm quieter by using materials that absorbed the sound and didn't let it escape from the box.

We had a think about how sound can be used to see how healthy we are.  We played with a stethoscope to listen to our heartbeats.

We also discussed how we can't hear some sounds as we can only hear within a certain range - 20hertz - 20000 hertz.  Some animals can hear sounds that we can't - eg dogs, dolphins.

We looked at a picture of an ultrasound scan.  This uses a very high pitched sound to create an image of the inside of your body by using an echo technique.

We explored this further as some animals can do this too.

In groups we picked an animal to research and we had to answer the key learning question:

How do animals use sound?

This group work activity was completed VERY well and everyone took part to help the group find the answer.  We used books and the internet to complete our research.

Our next key question was:  How do musical instruments produce sound?

We looked at a range of instruments and began to think about how they work.  We grouped them into families depending on how they make their sound - which part vibrates.  We made family posters.

Tuning instruments...

Earlier in the project we looked at tuning forks.  They each had a letter on them and a number.  We learned that the number on the fork represented how many vibrations it completed per second.  The letter represented the note the for made.

We had a play about with some xylophones from the music room.  We listened to the sound the made and explore the idea of a scale.

We tried to make our own musical instrument using glass jars and water.  This was good fun - and very noisy!  

We didn't quite manage to tune the jars perfectly but we were close enough.

I think P6 are enjoying this project!!