Our learning objectives were:
Identify how sounds are made, associating some of them with something vibrating
Recognise that vibrations from sounds travel through a medium to the ear
Recognise that sounds get fainter as the distance from the sound source increases
The children investigated how musical instruments were played and how we heard the sounds. We talked about vibrations, and listened to tuning forks and felt the vibrations in our hands. We could see the vibrations moving water when we submerged the tuning fork into a bowl of water. The children also understood sound travelling through vibrations using elastic bands and looking at grains of rice moving on top of a drum.
We carried out an investigation by making our own cup and string telephones. It was lots of fun!
We looked at whether we could hear more clearly when the string was pulled taut, or when it was loose. We found out what happened round corners, and the effects of putting a knot in the middle of the string.
We know that light travels faster than sound, but sound can change speed depending on what medium it is travelling though. Sound travels fastest through solids, and slowest through air. Think about whether you can hear sounds underwater (how do whales and dolphins communicate?).