STEM Educator Preparation
When was the last time you sat perfectly still and listened to the sounds around you? When did you last practice drumming on boxes, pots, and empty food containers? Now is your chance to do it! Grab a teaching partner and start exploring.
These hands-on activities will help you to:
- Explore different ways you can use the materials to create sounds
- Support children’s observations and thinking about making music
- Plan for ways children can document and represent their observations about making music
- Identify specific vocabulary to introduce and use in the context of their music explorations
- Anticipate and address problems that might arise as children use the materials during exploration time
Activities
As you explore, we encourage you to reflect on how to best introduce and adapt these ideas to suit your students and your environment. The questions below are intended to spark these reflections.
Indoor Sounds
Activity #1: Begin by making sounds using just your own body. How many different sounds can you make with your fingers and hands? (rub, clap, click, knock…) What’s the loudest sound you can make? The softest sound? Now see how many sounds you can make with just your feet, then with just your mouth. As you are making sounds with your mouth, put your hand on your throat to feel for vibrations. Which sounds cause your vocal cords to vibrate? Which do not? What do you think is the difference?
REFLECT: How might you help children feel this vibration? How do you think children may respond to feeling this vibration? How might they describe it? How might you record all the different sounds that children will make?
Science Concept: What Is Sound?
Sound is caused by the vibrations of objects. The vibrating objects create sound waves in the air around them. The sound waves move through the air (and other materials). Our ears have structures that change the vibrations into nerve impulses that reach the brain and allow us to hear the sounds. Because we cannot see sound waves traveling through the air or other materials, in this exploration we focus on the source of the sound and seeing and feeling the vibrations the objects make.
Activity #2: Gather a few cardboard tubes and some flexible tubing, like hoses designed for vacuum cleaners or sump pumps. Hold a tube up to your ear. What do you hear? Then move the tube away from your ear a little bit. What changes do you notice in the sounds you hear? What happens if you cover the other end of the tube with your hand? Try rubbing or tapping the outside of the tube with your fingers.
If you have flexible tubing, hold one end to your ear and whisper or hum into the other end. (Try it—it’s pretty impressive!)
Hold a small piece of paper over the end of a cardboard tube as you talk or sing into the other end. What do you feel?
REFLECT: As you experiment, think of ways to help children get the most out of these explorations. For example:
- Which would be most effective used in a small group setting?
- How can children share what they have learned and discovered with their friends?
- What are some open-ended questions you can ask that will engage children’s attention and focus it on the sounds they hear?
Troubleshooting: What, if any, safety issues might you want to address?
Activity #3: Try tapping empty containers and things around the room with an unsharpened pencil. Try running the side of the pencil over different surfaces, especially textured surfaces, as well. What different sounds do you hear? What words would you use to describe the sounds? Which sounds are particularly interesting or surprising?
REFLECT: Which of these objects would you choose to include in a collection for your students to freely explore as you begin this unit?
Science Concept: What Is Timbre?
Timbre refers to the specific tone or quality of a sound. For example, we can often identify a person by his or her voice, because the timbre of each person’s voice is unique. When we listen to music, we can often identify the instrument that is playing because of the timbre of the sound.
Activity #4: Gather some empty containers with lids and an assortment of small objects: beads, pompoms, paper clips, rubber bands, erasers, packing peanuts—try lots of different things! Put one or more objects in a container. Shake and listen. Try to make a loud sound and then a soft sound. How does the sound change as you put more or fewer objects in the container? Do you think you could identify the object inside the container just by shaking and listening? Can you imitate or describe the sound?
REFLECT: What would be some interesting “shake and listen” materials to provide for your children’s explorations?
Science Concept: What Is Volume?
Volume refers to how loud or soft a sound is. The waves of a loud sound have more energy than the waves of a soft sound. For example, when you pluck the string of a guitar softly, you hear a soft sound. When you pluck it with more force, you hear the same pitch, but the sound is much louder. The waves of a louder sound have a greater amplitude.
Activity #5: Place rubber bands around some of the open boxes and containers. Use one hand to stretch a rubber band tighter as you are plucking it with the other. What words would you use to describe what you are doing? Play around with different pitches. What’s the highest sound you can make? The lowest? Why do you think the pitches change? Can you make a loud sound and a soft sound that have the same pitch?
REFLECT: What sort of support do you think children might need to become engaged in making and exploring these “rubber band guitars”? How might you provide opportunities for children to demonstrate their discoveries to others, using the materials? What are some words that will help children share their discoveries with others?
Science Concept: What Is Pitch?
Pitch refers to how high or low a sound is. A sound that we call high is one that is produced by an object vibrating quickly. A sound we call low is one made by an object vibrating more slowly. For example, when you tighten a rubber band, it vibrates more quickly and the sound it makes is higher than when the rubber band is less tight. The waves created by the tighter vibrating rubber band have a higher frequency. A sound with a higher frequency has a higher pitch.
Outdoor Sounds
Activity #1: On your way outside, take a “listening walk” through the school. What sounds do you hear? What do you think are the sources? Continue your listening walk outside. Where are some good places for your students to sit quietly and listen for sounds of nature? For traffic sounds? What different sounds do you hear if you go for a walk around the block?
REFLECT: Which sounds might be interesting to record on a tape recorder for children to listen to?
Activity #2: Pick up a stick (or bring a ruler or paint stirrer outside with you) and see what sounds you can make as you tap or drag the stick along different surfaces, such as fence railings, slatted benches, bumpy bricks, metal posts, etc. Do certain surfaces make similar sounds? Why do you think so? Try imitating the sounds. What words could you use to describe the sounds?
REFLECT: How might you document what the children find out about sounds during your outdoor explorations? What words might you introduce to children to help them describe the sounds?
Troubleshooting: What sort of guidelines would you want to establish with the children for using the sticks safely and responsibly?