Spring 2 - Sound

• At the start of this unit, we learnt how sounds are created and how each sound is created by a vibration, which is a movement backwards and forwards. We tested our learning by creating different sounds and naming what was vibrating, for example, the skin of a drum vibrates when it is hit, this is what causes the sound. 
•  We used research to find out all about ears and how we hear. We labelled the basic parts of the ear and then in groups created powerpoints explaining all about how we hear from vibration to inside the ear. We used lots of scientific vocabulary to explain our learning clearly including the word amplitude to explain the size of a vibration (loud/quiet). 
• We were investigating pitch (high and low). We tested changing the pitch of a ukulele and a glockenspiel and found out that it can be changed by: the length and thickness of a string on a ukulele and the length of a key on a glockenspiel. 
• We investigated how sounds changed over distance, we learnt that soundwaves/vibrations get weaker the further they travel and that some soundwaves/vibrations are absorbed by obstacles before they get to your ear. We went outside to test this new learning. In pairs, we measured how well we could hear over the distances of 1m, 5m, 10 and 15m and we recorded our results in a table and then a bar graph. We can conclude that sounds are harder to hear the further your are from the sound source because vibrations get weaker and weaker.