Curated OER
Hooke's Law, Vibrations, Mechanical Waves, and Sound
Dangle a spring to experiment with vibration and discover if period is dependent on amplitude. Strum a guitar and adjust the strings to compare displacement and sound. Use a Slinky® and guitar strings on a ring stand to uncover the...
Texas State Energy Conservation Office
Investigation: Waves and Whistles
Wave goodbye to the same old demonstrations for alternative energy sources, and wave hello to this one investigating ocean waves! Using a water bottle to create an oscillating water column, learners see and possibly hear how the...
California Department of Education
What Is a "Wave"?
Take a stretch, but don't wave goodbye. An interesting resource provides everything needed to present an introductory lesson plan on waves. Teachers present a PowerPoint defining the types of waves and their characteristics. Pupils use a...
LABScI
Acoustics: The Sound Lab
If the delay between a sound and its echo is less than 1/10th of a second, the human ear can’t distinguish it. Through the use of a Slinky, rubber band guitar, and straws, scholars explore where sound comes from and how it travels. Whole...
Urbana School District
Waves
What is a physicist's favorite part of sports? Doing the wave. The presentation covers longitudinal, transverse, surface, and standing waves. It includes in-depth information on frequency, wavelength, period, amplitude, reflection,...
Cornell University
Sound Off!
Time to witness the effects of sound. Learners analyze different materials to determine their abilities to absorb sound waves. They use free software to monitor the amplitude of the waves to verify results.
Curated OER
Using Waves on the Job!
A colorful and comprehensive PowerPoint highlights this activity on waves. Junior geophysicists pretend that they are hired to analyze seismic waves. A worksheet is provided to go along with an online article about how compact discs work...
K12 Reader
Waves and Currents
Waves, currents, crests, and troughs. Using information provided in an article about waves and currents, readers define terms used to describe how energy travels.
California Department of Education
Waves and Music
Strike the right chord with a musical activity! Instructors provide a lecture on the mechanics of a pan flute. Pupils build their own pan flutes by using straws and calculating the lengths to create a scale. After cutting the straws to...
K12 Reader
Waves & Currents
Challenge your young readers with a passage about physical science. After reading about sound waves and electric currents, kids answer five reading comprehension questions about what they have read.
Columbus City Schools
Making Waves
Learning about waves can have its ups and downs, but a demo-packed tool kit has the class "standing" for more! Learners gain experience with several different wave types, organizing observations and data, and wave terminology. The...
Discovery Education
Sonar & Echolocation
A well-designed, comprehensive, and attractive slide show supports direct instruction on how sonar and echolocation work. Contained within the slides are links to interactive websites and instructions for using apps on a mobile device to...
Curated OER
Does that Sound Right to You?
Ninth graders are introduced to the components of compressional and transverse. They practice answering speed problems involving different mediums that waves travel trhough and then review the wave PowerPoint. They then visit physics...
Curated OER
Seismic Waves
In this seismic waves instructional activity, student will read information about the different types of waves that occur during an earthquake: P (Primary) waves, S (Secondary) waves, and shear waves. Then learners will complete 2 short...
Curated OER
From Vibration to Sound
Students observe a series of demonstrations to illustrate wave movement. For this sound wave lesson, students witness how objects create waves when dropped in a dish of water, use a rope and slinky to produce transverse and longitudinal...
Curated OER
Sound Observations
Students explore sound waves by conducting an experiment in class. In this sound frequency instructional activity, students utilize a tuning fork in class and identify which objects in class create different sound pitches on the fork....
Curated OER
Sound
Students explore sound wave motion and conduct simple experiments to demonstrate how sound travels.
Curated OER
Making a Musical Instrument
Students determine how music is produced through sound waves and how instruments produce music differently than others. They construct flutes out of straws and explore how to adjust the sound.
Curated OER
Measuring the Speed of a Wave
Young scholars create an experiment in which they measure the speed of a wave and record the data in a graph. They work in small groups to write the procedure for the experiment and share it with another group for cross checking of the...
Curated OER
Motion Commotion!
Young scholars explore the drawings of Rube Goldberg to design and construct a simple machine. They discuss simple machines, and using various materials and toy parts, design and construct a "Rube Goldberg" style machine to ring a bell.
Discovery Education
It's Too Loud!
STEM scholars investigate sound attenuation by conducting an experiment in which they compare the farthest distance that they can hear a sound with and without ear protection.
Curated OER
TE Activity: Pitch and Frequency
Students experiment with a vibrating ruler and a kazoo to study the different pitches and frequencies they produce. They create both high and low pitch sound waves. They examine how engineers use sound energy when designing electronic...
Curated OER
Applied Science - Physics Pre-Lab
Students describe the science of physics. In this Physics lesson plan, students observe examples of physics within their classroom. Students create a definition for physics.
Curated OER
Radiation from Space
In this radiation instructional activity, students review the different types of radiation waves that come from space and the different telescopes used to detect this radiation. This instructional activity has 17 true or false questions.