Intro+to+Sound+and+Soundwaves

 · ** Teachers:  ** David Bowers, Dave Breuning, Tom Metzger  · ** Date:  ** 08/02/2010  · ** Mentors:  ** Chris Atchison, Ryan Harrison  · ** Grade/Class:  ** High School (i.e. grades 9-12) Physics  · ** Room:  ** Arps 274  · ** Title:  ** Intro to Sound and Soundwaves ** __ Student Objectives __ ** · Students will be able to describe the relationship between wavelength and frequency in sound waves. · Students will be able to add functions symbolically and pictorially. · Students will be able to identify basic relationships between sound and functional representations of sound (e.g. amplitude corresponds to volume, frequency corresponds to pitch, etc.) ** __ Purpose or Rationale for Lesson __ ** This lesson was chosen for it’s essentially seamless integration of math, science, and technology. ** __ Opening __ ** As students file into the class and take their seats, the teacher will play some music. When class officially starts, the instructor will greet the class and then engage students in a full class discussion about sound and music. What is music? What is sound? What makes one sound different from another? What makes one sound the same “note” as another? How fast are sound waves? How can we measure the speed of something that we can not see? ** __ Body of the Lesson __ **  || ** __ TEACHER ACTIVITIES __ ** ** INTRODUCTION OF LESSON:   ** (~5 minutes of class time) Hook. ** FIRST ACTIVITY- FINDING THE SPEED OF SOUND:   ** (~5 minutes) Explain the first activity: Students will work with their groups to generate 100, 200, 300… and 1000 herz tones. Using the frequency and wavelength of the tones students will estimate the constant speed of sound. Excel will be used to help students log and compute data. // Note: Do not simply tell the students how to estimate the speed of sound. Show them how to generate a tone and explain what information you are given but allow them to decide how best to use that information. //  (~18 minutes) Move from group to group monitoring student progress and understanding. Ask questions to probe understanding such as “What does this number mean?” (~5 minutes) Have groups discuss their methods and findings with the rest of the class. Challenge students to explain what they did rather than just saying something like, “We found that the speed of sound is approximately x.” ** SECOND ACTIVITY- EXAMINING OCTAVES AND CONSTRUCTIVE/DESTRUCTIVE INTERFERENCE  ** (~2 minutes) Generate 220, 440, and 880 hertz tones. Discuss the idea of octaves. // Note: Try to not simply tell people the tones you have generated are each an octave apart. See if a student can identify this. //   (~3 minutes) Start overlaying the tones. Encourage the class to make observations about what they see and hear. // Note: Sounds are displayed pictorially as functions. Overlaying sounds results in the addition of functions. Students will likely observe this informally, but you may want to make it explicit that functions are being added. //  (~3 minutes) Engage the class in a discussion about what might happen if many tones/sounds were overlaid. What would it look like? What would it sound like? (~4 minutes) Share the recorded waveforms of several musical instruments or voices. Allow the class to discuss observations. (~18 minutes) Allow students (working in groups) to examine the questions that have been posed (e.g. “What happens when you overlay sounds?” “What do the qualities of the wave indicate about the sound it describes?” etc.). Monitor the groups for understanding by asking probing questions such as, “Why did you decide to do X?” or “What do you think this part of the waveform indicates?” ** CLOSURE OF THE LESSON:  ** (~8 minutes) Engage the class in a discussion on their findings. What does amplitude indicate? How about frequency? What other relationships are there between a sound and it’s functional representation? How do their findings relate to music? (~4 minutes) Closure. Students will engage in a full class discussion on the nature of sound and music. Students will listen, observe, and ask questions about the methods they are about to use. Students will work with their groups to generate 100, 200, 300… and 1000 herz tones. Using the frequency and wavelength of the tones students will estimate the constant speed of sound. Excel will be used to help students log and compute data. Students will discuss their methods and findings. Students will listen, observe, and share any observations they have with the class. Students will listen, observe, and share any observations they have with the class. Students will discuss their hypotheses. Students will listen, observe, and share any observations they have with the class. Students will record the sounds of several instruments and tones (via tuning forks), both alone and played simultaneously. Students will participate in a full class discussion on the nature of sound and music. Students will listen and observe. || ** __ Resources __ **** :  **  · Musical instruments  · Tuning forks  · Hardware to record sound  · Computers equipped with the necessary software to interpret and display functional representations of sound ** __ Safety __ ** There are no significant safety concerns for this lesson. ** __ Prior Knowledge Required of Students __ ** Students are expected to be familiar with mathematical functions and graphing of functions. Students are also expected to have experience with sound. It would be ideal but not necessary for students to be familiar with the sine and cosine functions. ** __ Potential Pitfalls __ ** Students are being introduced to new hardware/software during this lesson. Learning how to use this should not be a central focus of the lesson, but it is important that the students know enough to use it. The intuitive nature of the software and the fact that the students will be working in groups should be helpful, but make sure that the students understand how to use the materials. ** __ Closure __ ** The teacher will play an audio clip of the OSU brass band. In this clip, instruments begin playing one at a time. As the clip plays, the projector will be used to show students the wave function of the sound. Thus, students will see how the sounds waves of the instruments interact to become the thick, rich sound of the entire band. In essence, students will hear and see a beautiful summary of what they have learned. ** __ Accommodations __ ** · Extensive group work allows students to build on and learn from each others’ strengths. · Full class discussion exposes students to a variety of perspectives presented in a number of different ways. · Students will be playing notes, hearing the notes, and seeing the sound represented pictorially. Thus auditory, visual, and kinesthetic inputs are related amongst each other. This allows students of a variety of learning styles to play to their strengths. · Investigative work allows students to involve themselves in the learning process. ** __ Assessment of the Class __ ** · Class discussions will reveal student (mis)understandings. Follow-up questions to student observations will provide additional information. · Probing questions are to be used as groups work in order to assess student understanding. ** __ How Math and Science were Integrated __ ** In this lesson, the math and science are often so overlapped as to be indistinguishable from each other. · Sound is being represented as a function. In other words, a physical event is being represented mathematically. · When sounds overlap the result is addition of functions. Essentially, the property of sound that allows us to hear many noises at once can be related to a mathematical operation. · Amplitude and frequency (properties of the function) relate to loudness and pitch (properties of the sound). Other relationships exist with regard to the richness of the sound, etc. In essence, properties of the physical event are being related to properties of it’s mathematical representation. · The first activity requires that students analyze scientific data mathematically.
 * __ INTEGRATED SCIENCE, MATHEMATICS, AND TECHNOLOGY LESSON PLAN __ **
 * ** __ LEARNER ACTIVITIES __ **