I serve as a Magnet School Curriculum Facilitator and Teacher at East Rock Global Magnet School. We pride ourselves because of our diverse population and our global studies curriculum, which introduce students to various cultures around the world at an early age. Not only are children introduced to the cultures of these various countries, but through our partnership with the Yale School of International Studies, graduate students teach Russian, Chinese, Swahili, Japanese and Portuguese to our students. I am particularly excited about participating in the Yale New-Haven Institute Seminar, "Sound and Sensibility: Acoustics in Architecture, Music and the Environment" for several reasons. First, I have always wanted to write a unit focusing on culture, and when I approached several colleagues to work as a team they were receptive. Even though my unit concentrates on the science of sound, the units written by my colleagues focus on culture and the musical instruments associated with the cultures of Brazil and Africa. Secondly, I am looking forward to the production that we are planning for the school utilizing the units we create. Throughout these units, we will discuss the role of music in the cultures of Brazil and Africa.
The curriculum unit, "The Science of Sound and Instruments" can be used with students in grades 4 through 7 with minor adaptations. This unit is one portion of three other units written in this book. It will serve as the science behind sound and will discuss how the instruments introduced in the other units make music or sound.
"The Science of Sound and Instruments" will be composed of the following sections:
I. The Components of Sound
II. Sound Waves
III. Structure of the Ear
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(A) Outer Ear
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1. Pinna
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2. Auditory Canal
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(B) Middle Ear
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1. Eardrum
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2. Ossicles
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3. Eustachian Tube
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(C) Inner Ear
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1. Semicircular Canals
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2. Cochlea
IV. Hearing
V. How Musical Instruments Create Music
As you can see from the outline above, the paper will be divided into three different sections. Section I, The Components of Sound, will introduce students to the concepts which allow sound to occur. They will also discover the role each of these components in producing sound through basic experiments found in the lesson plans at the end of the unit. Section II, Sound Waves, will discuss how sound waves behave in the environment and the role they play in hearing. Section III, The Structure of the Ear, will focus on how we hear and perceive music. The students will be introduced to each part of the ear and discover how they all work together in order to hear sounds. Section IV, Hearing, briefly discusses what happens once sound reaches the ear. Section V, How Musical Instruments Create Sound, will explore the different instruments mention in the units written by Doreen Canzanella, Judith Dixon and Jackie Porter units. Lesson plans and simple scientific experiments utilizing those instruments will also be included in this unit.
Upon completion of the unit, the students will be able to:
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(1) Identify the components of sound.
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(2) Describe the relationship between pitch and frequency.
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(3) Explain the terms sympathetic vibrations and resonance.
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(4) Perform simple experiments about the world of sound.
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(5) List the three sections of the ear and the structures associated with each area.
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(6) Using a diagram of the ear, identify the main structures of the ear.
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(7) Explain the process of hearing.
