Exploration of Sound

Today we began class by experimenting with some tuning forks. Emily provided lots of tuning forks for the students to play with:





The students created a list which included observations and questions that they came up with throughout their exploration time with the tuning forks:


Their observations included:

• You can see the vibrating of the tuning fork.
• When you place a tuning fork on a solid object, the noise stops.
• When you touch the tuning fork to hair near your ear, it sounds like a bumble bee!
• There are numbers and letters on the sides of the tuning fork.
• Holding your hand on the bottom of a “hollow” tuning fork changes the sound.
  

Their questions included:

• Does the size of the tuning fork matter?
• What happens if you put the tuning fork in water? After experimenting, students noticed they could see ripples and splash, and said that “water dampens the sound.”