June 17, 2018 (Father's Day!): From the Sound of It

Sounds of summer are all around us. Let's use them to explore.

• Activity 1: Seeing Sounds
• Activity 2: Have to Hanger-Bang It Out
• Activity 3: Traveling to the Sound of a Different Drum

---

Activity 1: Seeing Sounds

Supplies Needed: Plastic wrap Rubber band Jar Sugar (rice or popcorn)

Experiment with sounds

• Place a piece of plastic wrap over the top of an empty jar and pull it tight.
• Put a rubber band over the neck of the jar to keep it extra taut.
• Place a few grains of rice (or popcorn, sugar, etc.) on the plastic wrap.
• Bellow loudly with your face close to the jar. Think: Drill Sergeant!
• Watch what happens as you shout. "Come on! Move it!"
• Sing or shout with a deep voice, a high voice, loudly, softly, etc.

Discussion

What you are seeing is the result of the sound waves traveling through the air and hitting the plastic wrap. What are sound waves?
Find an explanation at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGjxfx8sy6s .

---

Activity 2: Have to Hanger-Bang It Out

Supplies needed: String Scissors (to cut string) Metal clothes hanger (or metal substitute) Other hangers

Experiment Attach two strings to the ends of a wire hanger, suspending it upside down. Bang the hanger against the table. What do you notice? Wind strings around your index fingers and place your finger in your ears. Bang the hanger against the table. What do you notice? What do you think caused this? How might this relate to sound waves? What do you think happens if you change the length of the string, the kind of string, or use plastic hangers instead of wire?

---

Activity 3: Traveling to the Sound of a Different Drum

Supplies needed Empty Containers Pencils Paper Stuff for decorating

Experiment

• Drums may have different shapes and sizes. Tap a pencil on the different-sized boxes. What do you notice? Do you get a higher or lower sound on bigger boxes?
• Tap a pencil on the different materials (for example, a box, a glass, a wooden block). What do you notice? How does the sound change?
• Decorate your drum.
• Make a tune with a band. Play with speed of taps and different drums. If your child is ready, try to record your tune by writing out the music. For example, here is part of a tune the Robert, Maggie, and Pierce have repeated. The code is capitol letters are slow beats, lower case letters are quick beats and 0 are pause for a slow beat. Robert is tapping a pencil on a wooden block, Maggie is clapping, and Pierce is tapping a pencil on an oatmeal can drum. Our tune...
  
  R rr R rr R rr R rr R rr R rr R rr R rr ...
  M mm 0 mm M mm 0 mm M, mm 0 mm ...
  pp pp pp pp pp pp pp pp pp pp pp pp pp ...
  
  
• Extend: Create other noise making instruments, for example rice in a closed container.

Discussion

Where's the math? Recognizing, extending, explaining and recording patterns is part of the development of Algebraic Thinking. For children, mathematical patterns can be chunks that repeat (ABABAB...) or grow (ABAABAAAB...). For more examples, see "Too Many Thanks", part of our The Mathsters series. Recognizing patterns is also an important component of a child's intellectual development. Patterns extend and therefore can lead to predictions and generalizations. Children recognize patterns of all sorts in their surroundings and gradually begin to use this as a strategy for problem solving and as a tool for developing understandings (often initially over-generalizing or under-generalizing). It's beneficial to draw attention to patterns.