5.+What+Makes+Sounds+Soft+or+Loud,+High+or+Low?

__Content Standard B:__ Properties of objects and materials, position and motion of objects || • Comb • Safety googles • Many sizes of rubber bands • Sign language alphabet chart || • __Pitch:__ How high or low a sound is • __Cycle__ : One peak to the next peak of a sound wave  ||
 * **Lesson Components** || **Lesson 5** || **What Makes Sounds Soft of Loud, High or Low?** ||
 * || NSE Content Standards || __Content Standard A:__ Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry, understanding about scientific inquiry
 * || NB Curriculum Standards || * Identify and rephrase questions about ways to change pitch and loudness in a testable form (104-6, 204-1, 204-2)
 * State a prediction and hypothesis about the effect a modification will have on the pitch and loudness of the sound produced, based on the pattern of sounds produced (204-3)
 * Demonstrate and describe how the pitch and loudness of sounds can be modified (301-3) ||
 * || Purpose of Lesson || * Students explore how strong vibrations make a loud sound and weak vibrations make a soft sound.
 * Students observe that the pitch of a sound depends on its frequency.
 * Learn about sign language and hearing loss ||
 * || Materials Needed || • Science Journals
 * || Duration of Lesson || • 60 minutes (30 minute classes, twice a week) ||
 * || Integration With Other Subjects || * Music
 * Health ||
 * || Major Question || * What makes sounds soft or loud, high or low? ||
 * Engaging Questions || Warm-Up || * __Ask students__ : What is the softest sound you’ve ever heard? What is the loudest?What causes these extremes of sound and all the degrees of softness and loudness in between?
 * __Answer__ : the more energy, the louder the sound. For example, whispering at a friend produces takes a lot less energy than yelling to that friend at a concert or in the middle of traffic.
 * Ask students to create a list of the softest sounds they can think of. Then ask students to create a list of the loudest sounds they’ve heard. Record in journal.
 * Next, have students hum notes of different pitches. Have them practice until they can hear the difference. Does it take more energy to hum softly or loudly? ||
 * || Concepts/ Vocabulary || • __Volume:__ The loudness or softness of a sound
 * Exploration || Introduction || **High and Low Sounds**
 * Sounds can be high or low. Think of a fog horn; is it high or low? Is a dog whistle high or low?
 * Sound is measured by the number of cycles the sound waves make in a second.
 * A high sound has many cycles per second.
 * A low sound has fewer cycles per second. ||
 * || Student- Activity (Guided Discovery) || **Play it High and Low**
 * Have students strum the teeth of the comb with their thumbnail. Do it faster. Do it slower. How does the sound change? Record your observations in your journal.
 * Ask one partner to stretch rubber band around two fingers. Pluck it. How does it sound when the rubber band is tightened? When it is loosened?
 * Next, shorten the vibrating part of the rubber band by pinching it in the middle. How does that change the sound when you pluck it?
 * Ask one partner to stretch a second rubber band around the same two fingers. Which sounds higher, the thin one or the thick one? Make a table to show your results.
 * Which do you think vibrates faster, a rubber band that’s thick or thin? Get them to try it.
 * Which vibrates faster, a rubber band that’s long or short? Try it.
 * Which vibrates faster, a rubber band that’s tight or loose? Try it. ||
 * Explanation || Teaching || * The faster an object vibrates, the more sound waves it produces every second.
 * If you could see sound waves for a high and a low pitch, you’d be able to spot the difference between them right away.
 * The faster the object vibrates, the closer together the successive waves are. Predictably, the slower an object vibrates, the more widely spaced the successive waves are.
 * Explain to students that sound gives many of us a lot of information about the world around us. We don’t even have to think about listening sometimes, but the sound waves travel into our ears, signals reach our brains. ||
 * Expansion || Process Skills Used || • Observing, communicating, classifying ||
 * || Additional Investigations, Discussions || * Some people have trouble hearing. If someone cannot hear anything at all, they are deaf. Deaf people cannot hear others speak, so they use sign language. Some deaf people learn to tell what people are saying by the way their mouths move. This is called lip reading. Sound is made up of vibrations, and some sounds make vibrations that are big enough for deaf people to feel instead of hear.
 * Handout a sign language alphabet chart to each student and have them practice their name in sign language. ||
 * Assessment ||  || * Collect students’ Science Journals
 * Have students show and explain their graphs from the High and Low activity ||