Topic: Sounds around us

Supplementary material for use in lessons in the group of natural sciences (nature, biology, chemistry, geography, physics), additional classes, science clubs. It can serve as a resource for expanding knowledge, preparing students for science competitions.

Target group

8th‑grade students of elementary school

Core curriculum

General aim of education

Students explain how sound arises and describe the mechanism of sound waves formation and propagation in various materials.

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• to explain how the sound is produced; ;

• where loud and quiet sounds come from.

Methods/techniques

• activating

  • discussion.

• expository

  • talk.

• exposing

  • film.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• notebook and crayons/felt‑tip pens;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers;

• items and substances needed to carry out the experiments carried out in the film Fri „Sounds you can see”: plastic cup, balloon, salt, scissors, speaker or CD player, glass bowl, parchment, big eraser, dye‑dyed salt, portable bluetooth speaker, phone with tuner application;

• items and substances needed to conduct „Observation 2”: a ruler, a bowl of water, a thread about 10 meters long, two plastic cups for drinks, a needle, two buttons.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

• Students get acquainted with the content of the abstract. They prepare to work on the lesson in such a way to be able to summarize the material read in their own words and solve the tasks themselves.

Introduction

• The teacher explains the aim of the lesson and together with students determines the success criteria to be achieved.

Realization

• The lecturer asks the pupils to read the fragment „What is the sound?” And they performed „Observation 1” themselves.

• Students perform interactive exercise No. 1.

• The teacher announces a movie. He instructs his pupils to write a research question and a hypothesis in the form provided in the abstract. Then he plays the video and the students note their observations and conclusions. The teacher points the person who shares his insights and explains the reasonableness of the conclusions noted.

• Students receive the objects and substances needed to reproduce the experiment presented in the film and perform subsequent activities. They share their insights.

• The lesson instructs students to pair up and perform „Observation 2”. Volunteers formulate conclusions.

• The teacher asks students to find in the abstract the answer to the question: „Why do real recordings from the space station do not record the roar of engines?”. The indicated pupil answers.

• Students analyze the table showing the speed of sound propagation in different centers.

• Students perform interactive exercises No. 2 and No. 3.

Summary

• At the end of the class, the teacher asks the students questions:

  • What did you find important and interesting in class?

  • What was easy and what was difficult?

  • How can you use the knowledge and skills you have gained today?

  Willing/selected students summarize the lesson.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Sounds around us

What are sounds and where do they come from? In order to answer that question, turn on the radion and put your hand near the speaker. Do you feel the air vibrations? Now place your hand close to your mouth and say something. Do you also feel similar vibrations? How is it that we’re even able to produce a voice? Perhaps you know something about vocal cords?

Sounds are nothing more than particle vibrations. They may travel only in a medium, i.e. an environment filled with particles, e.g. in water or in the air. Air density and pressure disruptions – sound waves – are produced at a fast rate around the vibrating object, i.e. the source of sound.

We already know that sounds are caused by the vibration of objects. How do sounds travel in the air?

Sounds travel through air and water, but also through rock, metal, glass and other materials. We will prove it by building a simple phone.

Do sounds always travel with the same speed? The answer is no. The speed at which a sound wave travels depends on the medium through which it travels. For instance, sound travels significantly faster through water than air. This can be observed at a lake or at sea – an engine of a vessel can be heard much faster, if you lean over the water surface.

• Sounds are created as a result of the vibration of various media.

• A sound wave is the vibrations produced by the source of sound.