The Sounds of Science

Ancient people used musical pipes as early as the third millennium BCE. Young scientists explore the workings of musical pipes to better understand the relationship with frequency, length of pipe, and sound waves. They determine the...

Handbells and castanets. Triangles and timpani. Trumpets and trombones. As part of their study of instruments, young musicians label, trace and color the parts of seven instruments. Also included in the resource packet are tracing...

Sound engineers investigate the structural design of a musical instrument, the recorder. They work in collaborative groups to choose an instrument to build out of everyday craft materials. It must be able to repeat a three-note sequence...

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.

It's the encore to a wave unit. Individuals build either a slap tube, flute, or xylophone as a culminating activity for a physics unit on waves. Scholars calculate the lengths of pipes needed to produce the specific notes for their...

Not all sandwiches are tasty. Scholars use basic materials to build an instrument called a sound sandwich. They see how blowing on the instrument causes rubber bands to vibrate, which produces sound waves.

Young scientists investigate the scientific concepts and principles that help make common toys such as hula hoops, yo-yos, slinkies, and silly putty work. As a class, they read "Backyard Rocket Science, Served Wet" to get a look behind...

In this first of two parts, Mr. Noon walks around his physics class demonstrating how sound waves move. Ironically, the sound is off from the visual in this video! Use this illustrative video to learn about different demonstrations you...

Transforming a deep breath into beautiful musical notes, brass instruments represent an interesting combination of scientific understanding and artistic creativity. Traveling from the mouth piece to the bell, this short video...

Make sound waves visible with an experiment that asks middle schoolers to build a model ear drum using plastic bottles, rubber bands, plastic wrap, and sand-like substances.