Next Generation Science Storylines
How Can We Sense so Many Different Sounds from a Distance?
Dive into the mystery of sound waves! Scholars brainstorm questions about how sound travels and why different items make different sounds. They then conduct experiments to answer their questions.
Purdue University
Sound Absorption Wall
What types of materials absorb sound? Learners explore sound waves, the decibel scale, and how different materials affect sound. Then, they use their knowledge of sound meters to complete a STEM engineering design task to build...
Curated OER
Eggs-tra Special Sounds
Students explore different sounds. For this sound lesson, students participate in an egg hunt. The eggs are filled with different materials and hid around the room. Students find the eggs and chart the different sounds they hear....
Curated OER
Sounding Off About Impeachment
Help your middle and high schoolers reflect on the responsibility of newspapers to act as a vehicle for 'everyday citizens' to voice their opinions. Then, using an article about the first day of the Senate impeachment trial of President...
Curated OER
Sound Portraits
Students observe a variety of sounds which can be heard within their schoolyard habitat by sitting quietly by themselves for five minutes, listening, and then recording the sounds around them by drawing them.
Curated OER
The Halls are Alive with the Sound of Music
Students discuss physical places in which had good or bad acoustics. After reading an article, they discover the relationship between the physics of sound and concert hall acoustics. They calculate the speed of sound and compare their...
Curated OER
The Physics of Sound: How We Produce Sounds
First graders construct a KWL chart on sound. In this physics lesson, 1st graders describe different ways to produce sound. They explain how sound waves propagate.
Curated OER
Sound Waves
Students explore sound. In this "sound" science lesson plan, students define sound and explain how sound travels. Students experiment with paper cups and string to conclude how sound travels. Students research a chosen aspect of sound...
Curated OER
Sound and Hearing
Students discover how sound is produced by objects and picked up and heard by humans. Using musical instruments, they identify how the quality can affect the loudness, pitch and tone of the sound. They develop their own instrument or a...
Curated OER
Investigating Brass Instruments and Pitch
Students observe the sounds of different brass instruments in order to understand how to create different pitches. In this musical instructional activity, students create a "brass" instrument from everyday household objects. The students...
IOP Institute of Physics
Physics in Concert
What do physicists and musicians have in common? A lot more than you might think. After first viewing a slide show presentation and completing a series of skills practice worksheets on the physics of light, sound, and...
Curated OER
Sounds of the Wetlands
Students identify the sounds of different bird calls. In this biology lesson, students create a sound map. They explain how this method is important in tracking wildlife.
Curated OER
Sounds Good to Me
Learners determine density and hardness of wood samples based on several investigations. In this physical science and music lesson, students visit four centers and perform tests on wood samples to determine densities and hardnesses. They...
Curated OER
Sound Vibrations - Senses
Students experience vibrations using several of their senses, and design a test that uses their sense of hearing to judge the effectiveness of different solids to transmit sound vibrations.
Curated OER
Sound--Music or Noise?
Students are introduced to the concept of sound and how it is presented in the world around them. Using scientific terms, they describe the properties of sound and create their own definitions of sound, music, and noise. They demonstrate...
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Amazing Birds
What's so amazing about birds? Find out just how amazing birds are with a physics of animal behavior unit created by Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Have learners explore and tap into their observational skills and notice how birds fly, what...
Broward County Public Schools
Force and Motion
Get the ball rolling with this upper-elementary science unit on forces and motion. Offering over three weeks of physical science lessons, this resource is a great way to engage the class in learning about simple machines, friction,...
Curated OER
Sound Vibrations
Students examine how vibrations are responsible for the sounds we hear. Students experience vibrations using several of their senses.
Curated OER
Vibrating Objects Produce Sound
Students use many different materials and resources in order to study and identify sounds that are loud or soft, high or low, pleasant or unpleasant.
Curated OER
Physics: Light and Sound
Young scholars explore the concepts of light waves and sound waves. In this physics lesson plan, students complete activities that require them to investigate how light and sound waves travel.
Curated OER
Blast-Off to Blending
Practice working with different phonemes in consonants and vowels. Sounds are written on squares that get put on a rocket to "blast off" and meet other sounds. The teacher first models blending, then reads the new words. Young readers...
Curated OER
Understanding Waves
Pupils examine the physical properties of waves to explore the word crest and trough. They use toys to study waves in air, water and light.
Curated OER
String Telephones and Musical Straws
Fourth graders investigate pitches of sound. In this physical science lesson, 4th graders participate in two activities that help them explore pitch--one activity has them working with string telephones and the amount of tension...
Curated OER
Sounding Out CVCE Words
First graders explore vowels and consonants by participating in a flash card activity. In this phonetics lesson plan, 1st graders discuss the difference between short and long vowels and identify them within a story told to them by their...