Year 4 Science - Sound Activity 1 - Vibrations - Page 2 Activity 2 - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Year 4 Science - Sound Activity 1 - Vibrations - Page 2 Activity 2 How do we hear? - Page 8 Activity 3 Loud and quiet sounds - Page 15 Activity 4 - Pitch - Page 21 Activity 5 Pitch Optional Challenge Page 30 Activity 6 - Quiz
Activity 1 - Vibrations - Page 2 Activity 2 – How do we hear? - Page 8 Activity 3 – Loud and quiet sounds - Page 15 Activity 4 - Pitch - Page 21 Activity 5 – Pitch Optional Challenge – Page 30 Activity 6 - Quiz - Page 33
Discuss with your family or think about what you already know using the questions below as prompts.
Watch this clip to see to see how the different families of musical instrument create different sounds. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/clips/zqtxpv4 How do the musical instruments make sounds? Think of some words you could use to explain this.
Did you come up with some words to explain how the musical instruments make sounds? Look at the words below. Did you choose any of these words?
Vibration Vibrate Twang Blow Scrape Bang Shake Pluck
All the instruments are played in different ways, but they all have something in common. They all create sounds by vibrating. But what is a vibration? The balafon and the bongos make sounds when they are hit or banged, causing the blocks or the skin to vibrate. The pan pipes and horn are filled with air, which vibrates when they are blown. The strings of the guitar and the gopichand vibrate when they are plucked.
We can see and feel vibrations whenever sounds are made.
Gently place your hand on your throat. Say ‘Ah!’ Can you feel the vibrations from your vocal cords?
Around your home or on your daily walk there are lots
some places will be quiet. The loudness of the different places will even change throughout the day! You are going to carry out a sound survey of your home or local area to find which places are noisy and which are quiet at different times of day. You may decide to rate each place out of 5, with 5 being very noisy and 0 being totally silent.
(Science Tasks Document page 1)
We know that vibrations create sounds but how do we hear these sounds?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/class-clips- video/music--science-ks2-what-is- sound/zbnmhbk
Sound is caused by vibration. Vibration means wobbling very quickly back and forth. When you pluck a guitar string, or hit a drumskin, you can see the material vibrate. This causes the air touching the string to vibrate, which causes air further away to vibrate, which causes the air near your ear to vibrate, which your brain experiences as sound. The moving vibration is called a sound wave.
When a sound wave reaches our ear, our outer ear (the part that we can see on the side of our heads) funnels the sound into our heads down the ear canal. At the end of the ear canal is the eardrum, which is waterproof and airtight. Past the ear canal is the middle
three smallest bones in the body) which vibrate and pass the sound waves to the inner ear, which contains the cochlea, which turns the vibrations into electrical signals. These signals travel down the auditory nerve to the brain, which experiences the signal as sound.
Using the information on the slides and the video, create an explanation text showing how we hear things. You could use the sheet (Science Tasks Document page 2-3) For an extra challenge, try drawing some of your own diagrams and writing some of your own descriptions.
We know that sounds are made when something vibrates. What is vibrating in each of these pictures to make a sound?
Watch this clip to see if you can identify how different sounds travel.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/clips/z9h6n39
The louder the sound, the bigger the vibration. In the video, you should have noticed that the polystyrene balls vibrated more when she hit the drum harder, creating a louder sound. The size of the vibration is called the amplitude. Quieter sounds have a smaller amplitude, and louder sounds have a bigger amplitude.
Sound can travel through solids, liquids and gases. Sound travels as a wave, vibrating the particles in the medium it is travelling in. So in our example, when she hit the drum, the drum skin
start to vibrate as well. The vibrations then passed to the next air particle, then the next, then the next. This carried
passing the vibrations into your ear.
Once in your ear, the vibrations travel into the ear canal until they reach the eardrum. The eardrum passes the vibrations through the middle ear bones (the hammer, the anvil and the stirrup) into the inner ear. The inner ear is shaped like a snail and is called the
Hair cells change the vibrations into electrical signals that are sent to the brain through the hearing nerve. The brain tells you that you are hearing a sound and what that sound is.
Use the ideas you saw in the clip, or your own ideas to come up with your
You could use The Science of Sound Activity Sheet (Science Tasks Document page 4) to plan your ideas and then practise what you will do and say. Make sure your explanations are clear and easy for children to understand. Have fun and get into character!
Sounds can be loud or quiet. Bigger vibrations make louder sounds, and smaller vibrations make quieter sounds. There are other ways sounds can be different. Can you make a high sound? How about a low sound?
High and low are words to describe the pitch of a sound. The pitch of a sound is different to the amplitude. Amplitude is a measure of how loud or quiet a sound is, and pitch is a measure of how high or low a sound is. High sounds can be quiet or loud, and low sounds can be quiet or loud too! Amplitude Pitch
Watch this clip to see if you can hear and identify how different musical instruments create different sounds.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/clips/zsqw2hv
Watch this clip explaining how the pitch of a sound can be changed. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/clips/ztptsbk
On a string instrument, there are several ways to change the pitch. The tighter, thinner or shorter the string is, the higher pitched the sound will be and the looser, thicker or longer the string is, the lower the sound will be. Faster vibrations will make a sound higher, and slower vibrations will make a sound lower. The ways of changing the strings all change the vibrations, which in turn change the pitch of the sound.
On a wind instrument, the column of air inside the instrument is what vibrates to cause the sound. Shortening the column of air will create a higher sound, and lengthening the column of air will create a lower sound. This can be done with a sliding mechanism, such as in a trombone. The length of the column of air can be changed by opening
recorder.
In a percussion instrument, the surface or object that is struck is the thing that vibrates to create the sound. A thinner skin will make a higher pitched sound and a thicker skin will make a lower pitched sound. In a drum, the tighter the skin, the higher the pitch will be. There may be different instruments of different sizes. For example, when playing hand bells the musician will have a set of bells to play. The smaller the bell, the higher the
There may be a series of different length bars or keys, such as in a xylophone. The shorter the bar or key, the higher the pitch will be. The pitch of a percussion instrument can be changed in different ways.
Do you notice anything in common with how the different instruments create sounds of different pitches? Generally, the shorter, tighter or thinner the
will be. This is because the vibrations will be
is, the lower the pitch of the sound will be. This is because the vibrations will be slower.
Look at the investigation. (Science Tasks Document page 5. Can a straw produce different sounds?
Your challenge is to create a set of pan pipes that will create sounds of different pitches, and explain how to change the pitch. You will use straws, scissors, sticky tape and string to make the pan pipes.
Flatten the end 2cm of each straw, and cut a triangle in the end, like this. Place the triangular end of the straw in your mouth and blow hard through the straw to make a sound. You may have to try few times to make the sound! Use several straws to make your set of pan pipes. Stick or tie them together. Think about what you have learnt in
Draw a picture of your set of pan pipes and explain how you can create sounds of different pitches on your Straw Pan Pipes Activity Sheet. (Science Tasks Document page 6)
https://www.educationquizzes.com/ks2/science/ sound/ Visit the website to complete the quiz or follow the next pages on the teaching slide to view the same questions. Don’t worry if you aren’t sure of an answer. You could research it and the correct answers are revealed.
When something vibrates quixkly, it makes high frequency
A
A high pitch
B
A low pitch
C A medium pitch D A G sharp
When something vibrates quixkly, it makes high frequency
A
A high pitch
B
A low pitch
C A medium pitch D A G sharp
What unit is sound frequency measured in?
A
amps
B
joules
C hertz D heinz
What unit is sound frequency measured in?
A
amps
B
joules
C hertz D heinz
Which musical instruments produce lower pitches?
A
Shorter and thinner
B
Larger or thicker
C brass D woodwind
Which musical instruments produce lower pitches?
A
Shorter and thinner
B
Larger or thicker
C brass D woodwind
Which travels fastest, light or sounds?
A
light
B
They are the same
C sound D Sometimes sound
Which travels fastest, light or sounds?
A
light
B
They are the same
C sound D Sometimes sound
Sound waves can be reflected, tranmitted or what else?
A
bounced
B
deflected
C transcriped D absorbed
Sound waves can be reflected, tranmitted or what else?
A
bounced
B
deflected
C transcriped D absorbed
What can sound travel through?
A
air
B
water
C walls D All of these
What can sound travel through?
A
air
B
water
C walls D All of these
Sound waves can be reflected off solid objects. When this happens, what do we hear?
A
music
B
An echo
C thunder D No sound
Sound waves can be reflected off solid objects. When this happens, what do we hear?
A
music
B
An echo
C thunder D No sound
Which unit is the intensity (loudness) of a sound measured in?
A
decibels
B
crucibles
C multiples D degrees
Which unit is the intensity (loudness) of a sound measured in?
A
decibels
B
crucibles
C multiples D degrees
When a sound wave hits your ear, it makes the air in your ear vibrate. These vibrations cause what part of your body to vibrate?
A
Your auditory nerve
B
Your ear drum
C Your aorta D Your retina
When a sound wave hits your ear, it makes the air in your ear vibrate. These vibrations cause what part of your body to vibrate?
A
Your auditory nerve
B
Your ear drum
C Your aorta D Your retina
Why does a guitar produce a lower pitch when you do not press any fingers against a string while plucking?
A
A shorter string produces a lower pitch
B
A shorter string produces a louder sound
C
A longer string produces a lower pitch
D
A longer string produces a higher pitch
Why does a guitar produce a lower pitch when you do not press any fingers against a string while plucking?
A
A shorter string produces a lower pitch
B
A shorter string produces a louder sound
C
A longer string produces a lower pitch
D
A longer string produces a higher pitch