4.+How+Do+Your+Ears+Catch+Sound+Waves?

__Content Standard B:__ Properties of objects and materials, position and motion of objects __Content Standard G:__ Science as a human endeavor || • Ear handout • Model ear (optional) • Cotton balls ||
 * **Lesson Components** || **Lesson 4** || **How Do Your Ears Catch Sound Waves?** ||
 * || NSE Content Standards || __Content Standard A:__ Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry, understanding about scientific inquiry
 * || NB Curriculum Standards || * Describe examples of sound technologies that are used by people to meet their everyday needs (107-1)
 * Describe and illustrate how the human ear is designed to detect vibrations (300-3) ||
 * || Purpose of Lesson || • Students will observe that outer ears are shaped like funnels to direct sound into the inner ear. ||
 * || Materials Needed || • Science Journals
 * || Duration of Lesson || • 60 minutes (30 minute classes, twice a week) ||
 * || Integration With Other Subjects || • Health (Protecting Yourself, Your Family, and Your Community- understand that personal behaviours and choices may affect safety of self and/or others; Growth and Development- understand the parts of the ear and how to prevent ear damage) ||
 * || Major Question || * How do your ears catch sound waves? ||
 * Engaging Questions || Warm-Up || * Have students close their eyes.
 * Say, sound waves are traveling around you in all directions.
 * __Ask__ : How do your ears help catch these sound waves? Can you tell where each sound comes from without looking? How?
 * As you read, walk around the room and ask students to point to where they think you are.
 * Ask the students how the shape of their ears help them hear. Students can tell the direction each sound came from without looking because they have two ears.
 * Explain that sound waves from the right side reach your right ear before your left ear, and vice versa. ||
 * || Concepts/ Vocabulary || * __Eardrum:__ Thin membrane that stretches across the middle ear and vibrates when sound waves strike it
 * __Middle ear:__ A cavity, between the eardrum and inner ear, that contains three bones that transmit sound
 * __Inner ear:__ The cavity behind the three bones of the middle ear ||
 * Exploration || Introduction || • Hand out a blank picture of the ear and have them fill in the blanks as you go through the introduction.

Sirens, air conditioners, barking dogs, conversations....sounds of all kinds reach us from every direction. Our curved, fleshy outer ears, the auricles, catch sound waves and funnel them into our ear canals. From there, the waves travel down 2.5-cm ear canals to the eardrums. These tiny drum-like structures, just 10 mm in diameter, start vibrating and transmit the vibrations to the bones of the middle ear and to the spiral cochlea of the outer ear, which amplify and convert sound to nerve signals that travel to the brain. ||
 * || Student- Activity (Guided Discovery) || **Find that Sound**
 * Have students choose a partner
 * One person sits in a chair with his/her eyes closed and with one ear covered.
 * The other partner claps their hands around their partner’s head (to the left, to the right, above, and below). Keeping his or her head still, the person sitting points to where the sounds are coming from.
 * Repeat step 2 while the partner listens with both ears this time. How accurate is the partner this time?
 * Repeat steps 2 and 3 while your partner cups his or her ears. What difference does your partner notice?
 * Next, with one ear covered, can your partner locate all the claps? Which sounds can he or she accurately locate?
 * How does having one ear on either side of your head help you figure out where sound is?
 * Students keep a record of the answers in journal. ||
 * Explanation || Teaching || * Discuss how with one ear covered, students had difficulty identifying where sounds were coming from.
 * Explain that with both ears uncovered, students can hear better and can accurately identify where sounds are coming from. ||
 * Expansion || Process Skills Used || • Observing, communicating, classifying ||
 * || Additional Investigations, Discussions || * Give students the opportunity to find out what it is like to be hearing impaired for one hour.
 * Ask a parent to put large cotton balls in their child’s ears, or do this with small groups in the classroom.
 * Have students keep notes in their journals to describe the experience. What was different about their hearing? What was harder? What was easier to do? ||
 * Assessment ||  || * Collect students’ Science Journals
 * If hearing impaired activity is done at home, have students write an entry on their experience and have a parent/guardian sign and comment. ||