IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

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

This morning, the class explored different ways to create sound. They were also encouraged to write what sounds they heard and to answer the question, “What is sound?”. We had some great discussions on sound waves and vibrations, as well as how the ear works. We are excited to take this a step further tomorrow and look more deeply into the concept!

Tags: collaboration, creativity, curious, inspiration, project, sound

In several of our classes, this week involved going deeper into project work, or in some cases, introducing new projects. The students really enjoy working on projects, and this week has given us a glimpse into how beneficial project work can be, and how much students can learn while having fun at the same time.
In Mrs. Argus’ class this week, we began a new teacher-driven project about listening and sound. We are researching whether we can affect and potentially improve the students’ behavior, communication, and listening skills through their investigation of sound waves and the human aural system.
We initiated the project today by allowing the children to explore various tools and materials they can use to make sound. We spread out a large sheet of paper with writing materials to have them write or draw what they heard. Interestingly enough, several students drew their sounds as waves before we even offered any explanation of the way sound works. I’m interested to see what effect all this exploration and discussion will have on their own listening habits.
In Mrs. Bucher’s class, the students have been studying weather, and since Hurricane Sandy happened recently, they have used this event to enhance their learning experience. The students have decided to make a play about hurricanes and hurricane safety. They plan to charge “admission” into the show and then donate the money to help hurricane victims. Through this project work, the students have been able to connect their learning to the real world experiences that are happening. It is exciting to see them become interested and excited to learn about weather, make weather experiments, and help the victims of Hurricane Sandy.
In readers workshop, the students in Mrs. Bucher’s class have learning a new strategy to add to their toolbox: flippy dolphin. Miss Jeffrey and Mrs. Bucher have been teaching the students about short and long vowel sounds, so the students can use flippy dolphin to try an unknown word using a short vowel sound and then “flipping” it to a long vowel sound to see which one makes sense. The students have used this strategy many times and even found examples of this is Miss Wessels’ read aloud!
In Miss Cegielski’s class, the students have been working on a project about science. They learned about and explored various science tools such as pipets, magnifying glasses, thermometers, and hydrometers. The students were particularly interested in water, so that has become the focus of the project. Yesterday they took a field trip to the Children’s Museum. To prepare for the trip, they practiced using hydrometers and measuring the density of different types of liquids – plain water, salt water, and gatorade. They learned that the more “stuff” there is in the water, the more dense it is. They received a sample of water that leaked from an exhibit at a museum, and before the trip they all got to guess what type of water it was by comparing the stain to some other stain samples, including water, water with glue, saltwater, and saltwater with glue. They decided the water that made the stain must have a higher density than pure water, because the stain had some “stuff” in it.
Then yesterday at the Children’s Museum, the children split up into groups and went to the different exhibits, testing the water with thermometers and hydrometers. Today we had the kids analyze their data, and we made a chart as a class, listing the temperature and the density of each water sample. Using that data, they were able to tell that the leak was coming from the aquarium exhibit, because that sample had the highest density. The children were really excited to have “cracked the case.” They also got a note from Mrs. Clark’s class, saying that they had come to the same conclusion. The students asked Miss Cegielski if they could go back to the Children’s Museum to investigate further. 😉 Obviously we won’t be able to take another field trip anytime soon, but it was so cool to see that the students were so excited about this project and wanted to keep investigating and learning more. It’s such a great testament to the power of the Project Approach.
By Cayla Weese, Ashlee Hammer, and Kara Gitskin