I am currently a first grade teacher at Bishop Woods Elementary School in New Haven, which is a Title 1 Priority School. The learning community of my class is diversely populated. It consists of eighteen students, twelve boys and six girls. The students are from various racial, ethnic, and economic backgrounds. My students range from above to below grade level in their academic achievement. There are two mainstreamed special education students who receive resource, speech and language, and/our social work assistance. There are also three English Language Learners in my classroom. Music and athletics are common interests for the majority of my students. Their interest in music will increase their curiosity of how sound is produced. Many of my students take an enthusiastic and active approach to learning.
Objectives and Standards
The five main objectives for this unit are aligned with the Connecticut Performance Standards:
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1. Students will understand and experiment with sound.
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2. Students will conduct hands-on experiments that will explore the different measures of sound as one of their five senses.
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3. Students will understand that sounds are produced by vibrations, and that the sound waves and pitch cause different sounds to be produced.
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4. Students will produce their own musical instruments using various vibrating objects and observe the differences in sounds between each of them.
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5. Students will demonstrate strategic reading skills during read alouds.
Sound is often taken for granted because children are surrounded by sound in their everyday lives. One of the objectives of this unit is for students to understand and experiment with the way sounds are produced. The second objective is to give students the opportunity to conduct hands-on experiments that will allow them to explore different measures of sounds and sound as one of their five senses. This objective aligns with Connecticut Performance Standard 1.1 and 1.2. Performance Standard 1.1, Students will acquire and practice the ability to do scientific inquiry. This standard states that students will:
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a. Ask questions about objects, organisms and events in the environment
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b. Plan and conduct simple investigations
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c. Use simple equipment and tools to gather data and extend their senses
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d. Use data to form reasonable explanations
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e. Communicate, both verbally and in writing, their investigations and explanations.1
Performance Standard 1.2, Students will understand the process of scientific inquiry. This standard states that students will:
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a. Conduct scientific investigations which ask questions and compare answers to what they have learned previously
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b. Use different kinds of investigation, including observation and description to achieve broad understandings in science.2
The concept of sound waves is a complex topic and may be difficult for young students to understand. However by simplifying the concept through hands-on experiments and demonstrations children will gain a greater understanding of the sounds they can produce and hear around them. The third objective of this unit on sound will be to increase students' awareness of the sounds they hear, such as higher intensity sound waves produce louder sounds and that all sounds are produced by vibrating objects, such as strings, straws, glasses, and their vocal chords. This objective aligns with Connecticut Performance Standard 2.2, Students will understand that objects have position and motion and that forces can affect change over these objects. This objective states that students will:
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a. Learn that sound is produced by vibrating objects.
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b. Understand how pitch can be varied by changing the rate of the vibration.3
Experiments for the students to conduct will include making strings sing, playing on crystal glass, talking cups, and making an echo.
With the strong emphasis that is placed on literacy in our district, this unit was designed to also address Performance Standards in Language Arts. Specifically Performance Standard 1.3, students will demonstrate strategic reading skills before, during, and after specific reading tasks. This objective states that students will:
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a. Establish a purpose for reading (gathering information)
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b. Use prior knowledge to connect the new material to what they already know
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c. Design questions which focus on the selection.4
Throughout this unit I will collaborate with the music teacher, Ms. Stone. She will introduce the children to a wide range of musical instruments, the children will compare the different sounds they make, as well as how the sound is produced. As a culminating activity students will produce their own musical instrument using various objects that will produce different sounds when they vibrate. Each student will share their instrument with the class. Students will listen and observe the different sounds each makes, and state the physics of why they sound different.
