When sketching songs, sirens, and other sounds, students will sharpen their observations and interpretations of the environment around them. A sound map helps us become more aware of the sounds in our environment. It's a fun way to record observations and compare our environments.
Sound is all about vibrations.
The source of a sound vibrates, bumping into nearby air molecules which in turn bump into their neighbours, and so forth. This results in a wave of vibrations travelling through the air to the eardrum, which in turn also vibrates.
What the sound wave will sound like when it reaches your ear depends on a number of things:
- the medium it travels through
- the strength of the initial vibration.
- the "creator" of the sound: it is natural? artificial? mechanical?
This is a recommended pre-visit activity to Science World.
