Year 4 have been enjoying their Science Topic ‘Sound’. This topic focuses on identifying how sounds are made, recognising that vibrations from sounds travel through a medium to the earl, and finding patterns between pitch, volume and features of objects which produce sounds.
We have carried out experiments to explore pitch and volume. First, we focused on volume, using percussion instruments and altering the volume using different levels of force. The children realised that larger vibrations caused a louder sound.
Then, we explored varying pitches. We used a ‘glass orchestra’ experiment to explore how pitch changes with different levels of water in a glass. The children realised that the glass vibrates when we tap it but the air in the glass vibrates when we blow over the glass. This caused opposite changes of pitch. When they blew over the glass, a longer column of air caused slower vibrations which resulted in a lower pitch.
Next, we explored pitch using homemade pan pipes. The children cut straws of different lengths and stuck them together to make straw pan pipes. These were then used to find out how the pitch changed as the length changed.
We are looking forward to continuing to explore sound in the coming weeks, focusing on measuring the how sound changes with distance using the unit decibels.
