• Review pupils' knowledge and understanding of sound. Play an audio tape of different sounds, and ask pupils to identify and/or describe them. Check they use associated words correctly, eg 'high' and 'low' to describe pitch, and 'loud' and 'soft' to describe intensity.
• Ask pupils how sound is produced. Show pupils examples where the vibration is easily seen, eg tuning fork and polystyrene ball, loudspeaker and grains of sand. Provide familiar sound sources or pictures, eg musical instruments, and ask pupils to identify which part(s) vibrate(s) to make the sound.

view related objectives and outcomes

• Demonstrate, eg with a guitar, recorder and drum (adjustable tension), how notes of different pitch and loudness can be made.
• Ask pupils to investigate differences in the vibrations that produce the sounds in musical instruments, and help them to make generalisations.
• Reinforce these ideas by showing how pulling down further on a mass suspended from a spring makes the oscillations bigger, and how using a larger mass makes the oscillations slower. Discuss with pupils how these observations relate to their work on sound-producing vibrations.

view related objectives and outcomes

• Extend pupils' ideas about sounds and vibrations using an oscilloscope connected to a signal generator (or a microphone connected to a datalogger) to present a 'picture' of a sound wave. Explain that the wave on the screen is a representation of a sound wave. Introduce and explain the terms 'amplitude' and 'frequency', and relate these to loudness and pitch of a sound by demonstrating how the wave form changes with different sounds. Provide representations of different sound waves and ask pupils to identify, eg the loudest, lowest.

view related objectives and outcomes

• Establish that sound needs a medium to travel through. Show pupils an electric bell ringing inside a bell jar. Ask them to predict what will happen if the air is pumped out of the jar, and test their predictions. If the pump is noisy, it would be better to listen as air is let back in.
• Ask pupils whether sound travels through solids, eg Can you hear through closed doors? Can animals hear under water? Ask pupils to carry out some quick activities to demonstrate transmission of sound through solids and liquids, eg battery-operated radio in sealed plastic bag under water using a hydrophone, sound passing through a wooden bench, a length of metal rod, a string telephone. Help pupils to make comparisons with sounds from the same source transmitted through air and establish that transmission is more effective through denser media. Ask pupils why this may be so, reminding them of the particle model of solids, liquids and gases. Help pupils to record what they found out, eg using annotated diagrams.
• Remind pupils that sound travels much more slowly than light, eg fireworks. Ask them if sound travels at different speeds in solids/liquids/gases. Draw on experiences, eg singing railway lines before the train is heard through air, listening closely with an ear to a metal railing that is tapped some metres away. Ask how they might measure these differences. Quote the example of the two people who, some 100 years ago on Lake Geneva, measured the speed of sound in water. One made a visual signal while striking a bell under water. The other started his stopwatch and plunged his head in the lake until he heard the bell.
• Encourage pupils to explain the differences using the particle model.

view related objectives and outcomes

• With the class, produce a list of key questions related to the work that has been covered. Ask pupils in groups to use secondary sources and their own notes to produce answers to five of these. Pick out any particularly challenging questions and discuss pupils' answers to them with the class.

view related objectives and outcomes

• Use an audio signal generator to generate a range of sounds of different pitch. Ask pupils to indicate when they can no longer hear the sound. Tell pupils about the range you can hear and ask why the teacher's range of hearing is often more limited than that of pupils.
• Ask pupils what they know about the hearing range of animals and discuss how different animals use sound, eg long-distance communication in whales, ultrasonic echo location in bats, communication using whistles with dogs.

view related objectives and outcomes

• Elicit ideas from pupils about how we hear sounds. Show them an anatomical model of the ear, illustrating the relative sizes of the parts and how they are connected.
• Explain how the eardrum vibrates as a result of sound entering the ear, and the transmission of vibrations to the inner ear. A model eardrum can be used to demonstrate the transmission of vibrations from the air to a membrane.

view related objectives and outcomes

• Ask pupils to design and carry out an investigation into an aspect of hearing, eg
• Are two ears better than one in detecting the direction sound is coming from?
• Does the size of the outer ear affect hearing sensitivity?
• Does hearing range decrease with age?
• Help them to decide on a suitable question to investigate, and to plan their work, including consideration of variables, collection of suitable data and evaluation of results.
• Ask pupils to use overhead transparencies (OHTs) or a flip chart to summarise their work and to present it to other pupils. Encourage pupils to compare their own investigations with those of others and to identify good and bad points in them.

view related objectives and outcomes

• Raise issues of noise pollution, eg near airports, due to traffic and listening to pop music. Demonstrate use of a sound-level meter. Ask pupils about an alternative method of comparing sounds that relies on the way loudness diminishes with distance, eg measure the distance at which the sound first can no longer be heard. Ask pupils to investigate a question, eg
• survey the loudness of sounds at different locations around the school or over time in their own classroom
• compare the loudness of sounds from personal stereos, eg set at the level at which pupils like to listen
• investigate the effects of sound insulation, eg with a clock in a box filled with different absorbent materials
• Help pupils to plan the measurements (including repeat measurements) they will take and the way they will record and present their data.
• Present data from secondary sources on sound and recommended safe levels. Ask pupils to draw up a list of sound levels for common sounds.

view related objectives and outcomes

• Present information about noise pollution and ask pupils to suggest ways of reducing noise levels.

view related objectives and outcomes

• Present pupils with information about hearing impairment, eg among different age groups, and ask them to suggest possible reasons, eg exposure to loud sounds at work, exposure to loud sounds when young, inherited deafness. Help pupils evaluate possible explanations and to think of reasons for supporting and rejecting them.
• Use some accounts of people's experience of temporary deafness or tinnitus to discuss with pupils what excessively loud sound can do to hearing. Use a model or diagram of the ear to discuss what might cause the problems.
• Ask pupils to present their findings and views in the style of a popular medium, eg youth magazine, local radio item.

view related objectives and outcomes

• Review work on sound and hearing by helping pupils construct a concept map using terms, eg pitch, loudness, amplitude, decibel, hearing, vibration, sound insulation. Discuss outcomes with pupils.

view related objectives and outcomes