IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Today our class made pan pipes. We created these by lining up 8 different sizes of cut straws longest to shortest. Then we taped the straw pieces together and blew away! We had some conversations about how the sound waves traveled through the different straws and what that meant for pitch. Earlier this morning, a friend had created an instrument that changed pitch. We learned that the less rubber band space the instrument had, the higher the pitch. The more space the sound waves had to travel, the lower the pitch. We were interested to see if this was true for the panpipes- and it was! See if your learner can play different pitches for you.

Tags: listening, music, project, sound

Today we explored eardrums! We created artificial eardrums by rubber banding plastic wrap over red plastic cups. We talked about how the plastic wrap represented the thin membrane covering the ear drum. To observe vibration, we opened a packet of sugar onto the top of each plastic wrapped cup and shouted at various levels. The sugar danced! We then tried singing, whispering, and shouting at different intervals to see what the sugar would do. We discovered that the sugar moved as a result of vibration. We created sounds which traveled via sound wave to the ear drums. The ear drums then vibrated! In a real ear, we learned this is part of a chain reaction. The ear drum then activates the anvil, hammer, and stirrup bones in the middle ear which activate the cochlea. The cochlea then activates the nerve ending which sends a signal to the brain to tell it what it is hearing. WOW! Science rocks.

Tags: experiment, project

This week, we are looking a little bit deeper into the human ear. Today, we did observational drawings of the ear. We learned that there is an inner ear and outer ear and hope to learn more about the eardrum later this week.

Tags: curious, observation, project, sound

On Friday, Dylan and Jackson were experimenting more with the cup phones. Dylan invited Ayden over to join them. He inserted one of the phones inside the other, creating a 3 way connection. The boys tried it out and were excited to discover that they could hear one another! They invited another friend, and another, to continue adding connections. Pretty soon, about half the class was involved with the multi way connection phone. They troubleshooted and problem solved together when connections were lost and broken and celebrated when they could hear one another or each other’s vibrations on the string.

Tags: collaboration, inspiration, project, sound

How does sound travel? We learned sound travels via vibrations. Vibrations in the air are called sound waves. Today we experimented with sound by creating cup phones and talking to our neighbors! Here is a snapshot of our conversation after our experience.

We made cups and we talked in them and another person put their cup to their ear. Cariah

We made some echos in the cup. Hold it tight! Greyson

It works because of the vibrations on the strong. Lucas

Why do we need the cups? Could we just use the string? Mrs. Goldsmith

The cups are actually for you to put your eat and mouth on so you can make the echo sound come in. And when youre like on the other side its kinda similar. We don’t know how it does it. Its like magic. Dylan

Was it more important to be the listener or the talker today? Mrs. Argus

Listener, because you have to actually like, be quiet to hear… Dylan

Yeah, like you listen! Beatrice

If somebody’s talking, you don’t talk through it. Dylan

Listening is more important because you can learn more about the person that is talking. J’Den

An amazing conversation. 🙂

Tags: collaboration, curious, problem solving, project, thinking