Instrument Research Project!

Recently, in our class we have been studying Physics of Sound. To connect with our unit, we began a research project musical instruments.  Each student chose a musical instrument to research and collect facts on. As a class, we decided to research the history, physical description, and how sound is produced by our instrument. Students used Popplet to organize and collect their facts throughout the research process. Please see our class example Popplet we worked on together below. Finally, students used a Google Doc newspaper template to create a newspaper about their instrument.  Each newspaper was to include 3 paragraphs, one for each of our subtopics, photos with captions, and fun facts.  Some newspapers even have hyperlinks to Youtube videos of famous people playing the instruments. Please click here to see our class model newspaper of the West African Kora. You might also want to explore student portfolios to see some of the work done my our class.

Science Fun!

Our students have been inquiring into the physics of sound over the last three weeks.  Here are some photos and captions explaining what we have been up to!

In this photo, a group works to determine the pitch of different metallic tubes that make a simple xylophone.  Students then had to draw connections between the length of the tubes, the vibration of air particles, and the pitch.

 Here below, students create simple "water phone." Again, students must order the bottles by the pitch and discuss how sound waves flow through water and air.  They also reflected on another connection to variations in pitch.  To the right, Chloe demonstrates the cup as a resonating chamber, and changes the pitch and tension of a finishing line while sliding the cup up and down the ruler.

Left, Thiago closes his eyes and attempts to guess the order and pitch of the keys on the kalimba.  Below right, Thais and Danny observe sound waves by a tone generator.  The tone generator uses a 9-volt battery and allows students to visually experience the concepts of pitch, volume, and frequency, in relation to sound waves.  We put some small coffee beans on the amplifier to help us observe the changes.  A common misconception in grade three is that a a high pitch is the same as a loud sound, so this helps students explore this misconception and set the scientific knowledge straight! Below left, Emily and Rome use wooden sticks to explore how length affects vibrations, frequencies, and pitches.

Word walls and charts are useful graphic organizers that can help us if we forget something, or need another visual reminder about a concept.

Underneath and right, students experiment with the kalimba.

Alex presents his gong and ukelele.

Lucas muses over how exactly the harmonica vibrates.  Is there something inside it?

Julie serenades us with her lovely violin playing!

Chloe is an accomplished piano player- and she wrote an essay to tell about it!

Learning about Sound!

Welcome to Physics of Sound in third grade! Recently, students have been experimenting with sound, and practicing sound discrimination. To start our unit we connect with reading and writing by researching musical instruments, so students can create their own musical instruments for their final project. We use World Book Online to research the four main groups of musical instruments: woodwinds, percussion, brass, and strings. Students have been working hard to take research notes and then write up complete paragraphs with topic sentence, body sentences, and conclusion. Below is an example of a paragraph our class wrote together during this process. Please read the student blog portfolios to see student work!


Brass instruments are made of metal, and they make rich, deep, and interesting sounds. To make a sound, a musician will blow into the instrument's mouthpiece. The metal inside the mouthpiece will vibrate and will make the sound. If the musician closes his lips tightly then the pitch will change. Brass instruments are cool because they are shiny, golden, and have unique shapes and sounds.

Burle Marx Park Ecosystem Field Trip

Official Burle Marx website

Complete list of species in Burle Marx (Portuguese)

Mammals - Reptiles - Amphibians

Common Possum(wikipedia)  Common Possum (National Geographic)  Common Possum (The World Book)  Didelphis marsupialis	Common Marmoset (Wikipedia) Common Marmoset( The World Book) Callithrix jacchus	Brazilian Guinea Pig (Wikipedia)   Brazilian Guinea Pig (The World Book)   Cavia aperea	Coypu (Wikipedia)   Coypu (The World Book)  Myocastor coypus
Gold Tegu Tupinambus teguixin teguixin	Green Snake Philodryas patagoniensis	Jararaca Bothrops jararaca	Striped Toad Bufo crucifer

Birds

Neotropic Cormorant Phalacrocorax brasilianus	White Tailed Kite Elanus leucurus	Great Egret (Wikipedia)   Great Egret (The World Book)  Casmerodius albus	Yellow Headed Caracara Milvago chimachima
Roadside Hawk Rupornis magnirostris	Black Vulture Coragyps atratus	Guira Cuckoo Guira guira	Smooth Billed Ani Crotophaga ani
Northern Crested Caracara Polybruos plancus	Squirrel Cuckoo Piaya cayana	Blond Crested Woodpecker Celeus flavescens	Variable antshrike Thamnophilus caerulescens
Great kiskadee Pitangus sulphuratus