4. WAVES AND VIBRATIONS
Elementary Benchmark 1 "Describe sounds in terms of their properties (pitch, loudness)."
Benchmark
2 "Explain how sounds are made."
Benchmark 1 "Explain how sound travels through different media."Benchmark 2 "Explain how echoes occur and how they are used."
- Acoustics of Baseball Bats - Waves & Vibrations (IV.4.MS.1)
- This site has animated wave patterns to show the acoustical vibration of baseball bats. Compares the vibration of a wood and aluminum baseball bat. Uses familiar objects to teach science concepts.
- Doppler Effect Two Sources - Waves & Vibrations (IV.4.MS.1)
- Students can manipulate frequency, speed of sound and speed of objects and then watch two waves vibrate and create interference patterns in this interactive simulation.
- Doppler Effect Single Source - Waves & Vibrations (IV.4.MS.1)
- This page shows the doppler effect when sound comes from a single source.
- Doppler Effect Applet - Waves & Vibrations (IV.4.MS.1&5)
- Outstanding - This web site consists of an interactive airplane and human. Even though this site focuses on the Doppler Effect, students can clearly see and hear the illustrated sound waves as the airplane flies to and away from the human (sound traveling through a gas).
- How Sound Travels - Waves & Vibrations (IV.4.MS.1)
- This site shows students how sound travels within the human ear. There are animations and lots of illustrations to supplement the information. The menu invites visitors by stating: "the body's hearing organ consists of three regions; the external ear, middle ear and inner ear. From the graphic below, click on the region you want to know more about."
- Model Analysis of an Electric Guitar - Waves & Vibrations (IV.4.MS.1)
- This site shows how the shape of a guitar can affect the vibration pattern. Nice animations and additonal links for further student exploration.
Benchmark 3 "Explain how light helps us to see objects."
- Longitudinal Waves - Waves & Vibrations (IV.4.MS.2)
- Interactive graphics that depict what happens to the sound waves when the student "screams" by moving a "chunk." Displacement, velocity and acceleration are depicted.
- Physical Science Activity Manual - Waves & Vibrations (IV.4.MS.2)
- Explains how echoes occur and are used through various media. Can you see sound?; can you put a fire out with sound?; relationship of the speed of sound and the medium through which it travels; transverse and longitudinal waves; frequency, velocity, and wavelength; constructive and destructive interference; the Doppler effect; tuning forks, pianos, pipe organs, and pendula.
- Wave Motion - Echoes - Waves & Vibrations (IV.4.MS.2)
- Student interactive site. Needs ShockWave program to work the student activity. Students work on waves & vibrations to learn about echoes.
Benchmark 4 "Describe ways in which light interacts with matter."
- THE CEA LIGHT TOUR - Waves & Vibrations (IV.4.MS.3&4)
- An excellent interactive site focusing on the behavior of light.
Benchmark 5 "Describe the motion of vibrating objects."
- Basic Prism - Waves & Vibrations (IV.4.MS.4)
- Outstanding - This web site consists of an interactive prism in which students can change the red laser light to white light passing through a prism. When utilizing the white light the prism reveals all of the colors in white light ROYGBIV.
- THE CEA LIGHT TOUR - Waves & Vibrations (IV.4.MS.3&4)
- An excellent interactive site focusing on the behavior of light.
Benchmark 6 "Explain how mechanical waves transfer energy."
- Doppler Effect Applet - Waves & Vibrations (IV.4.MS.1&5)
- Outstanding - This web site consists of an interactive airplane and human. Even though this site focuses on the Doppler Effect, students can clearly see and hear the illustrated sound waves as the airplane flies to and away from the human (sound traveling through a gas).
- Pendulum - Waves and Vibrations (IV.4.MS.5)
- Students are to work in groups to gather data regarding the relationship between the length of the pendulum and the length of the time it takes for one complete period. Once the students graph the data, they are then asked to predict the appearance of the graph if the length of the pendulum as 2X or 0.5X the original length. The teacher may adjust the difficulty of this lesson according to the level of the student.
- Science Activities with Sounds and Waves - Waves & Vibrations (IV.4.MS.1)
- This site shows how a drum head vibrates and illustrates with an MPEG movie, the motion of a vibrating object. Requires an MPEG player to view.
- Science of Sound-Sound Site - Waves & Vibrations (IV.4.MS.5&6)
- Students can play different sounds to gain an "ears on" experience with different wave forms. The visual design will keep students engaged in the activities. They can make sound with rulers, design an eardrum and experience slinky sound waves. Students can search for different sounds in the online database. You can add sounds to the database so the students can hear the specific sounds that tie in with the lesson.
- Introduction to Waves - Waves & Vibrations (IV.4.MS.6)
- This site helps students to understand the basic structure of a wave. It gives students the opportunity to adjust different parts of a wave such as amplitude, wavelength, wave speed, and phase shift. This first page could be used for middle school students was well as the link entitled waves, while other links could be used for high school students to look at the physics of how waves behave and the trigonometric realms of waves.
- Science Activities with Sounds and Waves - Waves & Vibrations (IV.4.MS.6)
- This site has information and activities for students to use sound and waves. Making Waves, Wave Patterns, Resounance, Frequency and the Musical Scale are all covered at this site.
- Science of Sound-Sound Site - Waves & Vibrations (IV.4.MS.5&6)
- Students can play different sounds to gain an "ears on" experience with different wave forms. The visual design will keep students engaged in the activities. They can make sound with rulers, design an eardrum and experience slinky sound waves. Students can search for different sounds in the online database. You can add sounds to the database so the students can hear the specific sounds that tie in with the lesson.
- Secret Bells - Waves & Vibrations (IV.4.MS.1&6)
- This site contains simple, easy to follow instructions for a variety of experiments and demonstrations. Related links for other physical science enablers.
High School Benchmark 1 "Relate characteristics of sounds that we hear to properties of sound waves."
Benchmark 2 "Explain how we see colors of objects."
- Interactive Sound Lab - Waves & Vibrations (IV.4.HS.1,3&4)
- This interactive site allows students to create constructive and destructive interference. It deals with sound capabilities. This site contains general information and student activities.
- Sound Site: Activities: Vibrations through wood and metal - Waves & Vibrations (IV.4.HS.1)
- A lab to compare sound going through wood vs. metal.
- The Science of Light - Waves & Vibrations (IV.4.HS.1)
- Introduction to how we see colors with a link to Light in Color. Using two colored light sources students can move them to produce different colored and shaped shadows.
- Science Explorer: Sound - Waves & Vibrations (IV.4.HS.1)
- This site describes sound waves and has a link to "internet activities which provides exploration into various characteristics of sound including the Doppler Effect, as well as an on-line "self-test".
- Science of Sound: Hands on Activities - Waves & Vibrations (IV.4.HS.1)
- The site contains labs to investigate the properties of sound. Example of some labs are: Making a Model Eardrum, Slinky Soundwaves, Making Sounds with String, Air and Strings: Human Vocal Cords, Balloons: Vibrations through air.