Sound waves

Hello students,

A song, a shout, a squeak, a smash: all of these make noise. They also create sound waves which move the noise from its source to the ears of the people who hear it. So what are sound waves? How do they travel, and what would life be like without them?

We are going to do some investigations by watching videos, and taking notes, and answering the questions that follow. After you're done you will be ready for your evaluation. 

Good Luck and have fun!

Task 1:

Introduction Video

This above video provides a basic introduction to sound waves. Watch the segment as many times as you like, and read the video transcript if you want to. Then, answer the question to take notes. 

Use full sentences to answer the following questions:

1) What is a medium?

2) What are three examples of a medium?

Task 2:

Vocab review

You learned in the video that sound travels in waves through a medium.

Let's review some other vocabulary terms that are essential to understanding this lesson. After you've done this, answer the questions below.

1)  What is the difference between a wave and energy? 

2)What is the difference between a wave length and amplitude? 

3) What is the difference between frequency and wave length?  

Task 3 

Sound waves move energy using longitudinal wave.  As each sound wave passes through a medium on its way to your ear, the particles of that medium move in the same direction as the wave itself, which is side to side.

Watch this animation about longitudinal wave, and answer the following questions. 

1) How the particles move in a sound wave? 

2) Which properties of sound waves can be measured? 

3) Write one sentence describing how particles move in a longitudinal wave. Then, write two more sentences describing how wavelength and amplitude are measured.

Now that you have completed all the tasks, and it's time for your presentation! You are going to create a children's book about sound waves. Rember that you need to pay attention to your diction since your audience are going to be little kids. Also, please include graphics and lovely illustrations for our children so that they will be interesting in what you will show to them. Try to explain the physics concept of sound waves in a way that is easy to understand.

The following pictures are some examples: 

The following WebQuest was designed for my class to learn about the sound waves. The standards that utilized is from NGSS: HS-PS4-1. Use mathematical representations to support a claim regarding relationships among the frequency, wavelength, and speed of waves traveling in various media. This webquest is intended to be used at home as an online assignment. While learning the physics concepts, students will also develop the skill for self-learning.