a megaphone
Activity

How Does Sound Travel?

Hands-on activity for students who are blind or visually impaired to explore how sound travels.

A simple tuning fork is employed to help students understand more clearly what causes sound and the manner in which sound moves.  The vibration of air causes sound to travel from the point of its inception to our ears.   This activity allows students to feel vibration using a tuning fork in order to better conceptualize the movement of air around the tuning fork.  

Vocabulary:

Materials

Procedure

Warm Up:

Pass out tuning forks and have students hit them on their knee or the ball of their hands.

Part One – Pitch and frequency
  1. After students have had a few minutes to play with the tuning forks, listen separately to each student’s tuning fork. What do the students notice?  (The tuning forks have different pitches.)  
  2. Read the measurement of frequency in Hertz from each tuning fork to the group.  Do the students notice a pattern?Students should notice that the higher the frequency (in Hertz) the higher the pitch of the tuning fork. Relate the speed of vibration of the tuning fork to the pitch 
Part Two – Vibration and sound
  1. What causes sound?  Ask the students to think about why they are able to hear the sound from the tuning forks.  Have them place the tuning fork close to the ear after striking it.  What is it it doing?  (vibrating) Then, have the students touch the tuning forks.  They will likely already have discovered that the tuning forks are vibrating.  Discuss with the class how the vibration of matter is what makes sound.
  2. Sound travels – How does sound travel from the tuning fork to our ears?  Discuss – What is located around the tuning fork?     If students answer “nothing”, prompt them to think again until they realize that air is surrounding the tuning fork.  Describe the vibration of the tuning fork causing the surrounding air molecules to vibrate.  This vibrating air forms sound waves.  The sounds waves travel to our ears.  

NGSS Standards

Grade 1 – Waves, Light, and Sound
PS4.A: Wave Properties

Grade 4: Waves: Waves and Information

Middle School: Waves and Electromagnetic Information

High School: Waves and Electromagnetic Radiation

This activity was designed by Jim Clark.

By Laura Hospitál

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