Sound Phenomena

Each of the students was given a stack of white slips of paper and asked to write a word that they would associate with sound on each slip. They were given about ten minutes of “thinking time” and when they were done, they shared their ideas with each other. Once they had shared their words, they were asked to sort the words they had come up with in any way that they saw fit. The students came up with the following categories and sorted their words into each category:

Words to Describe Sound
Noise
Silent
Loud
Volume
Quiet

Sounds We've Heard
Treble
Bass
Music
Ring
Tap
Snap
Bang
Animal Noises
Voice

Ways to Measure Sound
Tone
Waves
Node
Hertz
Amplitude
Decibels
Range

Ways to Describe Noise
Distortion
Echo

Once the students had finished sorting, I asked them to think about the things in their “Sounds We've Heard” column and how they were able to hear those sounds. They said they knew that two objects needed to interact with each other in order to create a sound. One of the students shook her hand in the air to demonstrate the action of two objects coming in contact with one another. I asked her what she was demonstrating and she said: vibration! I asked them if they knew how to describe vibration, and one of the students said, “things moving back and forth.”