See, hear, and feel sounds

What you'll need

• Laptop and projector
• "See, hear, feel sound" slideshow
• "Kazoo craft" instructions

Kazoo craft 

Prepare an example of the kazoo craft before class.  This is beneficial because it shows the students exactly what they are expected to do. 

• Materials per student
  • paper towel or toilet paper roll tube
  • 1 pre-cut square of wax paper (4’ x 4’) 
  • elastic band
  • markers / colouring materials
  • scissors / pen (something to poke a hole into the kazoo)
• For the class demonstration
  • 1 bowl (steel or porcelain)
  • 1 sheet of plastic wrap (big enough to cover the bowl tightly)
  • Salt (coloured sprinkles may be used as an alternative, if available)
  • Stretch plastic wrap tightly over the bowl and secure it with a rubber band.  Make sure the plastic wrap is smooth and there are no wrinkles. Do not add salt or sprinkles until the class demonstration in front of the students. You can refer to this video for a visual example.

1. Use a laptop and projector to present "See, hear, feel sound" slideshow.
2. Start by asking students to think of different sounds that they hear during their everyday lives. In slide 2, you can mention: sound of rain falling, bees buzzing, cars honking, train moving, dogs barking, people talking, sirens wailing, phones ringing. 
3. In slides 3-5, explain that some sounds are natural and some sounds are artificial.
   • Natural sounds are found in nature. A few examples: birds chirping, wolf howling, meow of a cat, the bark of a dog, water in the river flowing, people talking, people singing, the sound of rain and thunder.
   • Artificial sounds or noises are made by humans.  Some examples include cars honking on the street, alarm clocks ringing, phones ringing, music coming from a flute, sounds coming from the speakers of the TV. 
4. Explain how sound travels in waves and causes vibrations in the inner ear referencing slide 6.
   • Ask students to hold their hand over their throat while saying “aaahhhh” or “ohhhhhh” for a long time.  Ask them to notice how the “sound” of their voice feels against their hand. Explain that what they’re feeling is a vibration.
   • Optional: Show another example of a toy being thrown into a bucket of water.   It makes a "splash" sound.  You can see the water moving when the sound is made.
   • Optional: Show another example of guitar strings being plucked.  When the sound is produced, the strings vibrate quickly back and forth.
5. The vibrations create sound waves.  The sound waves travel through the air, reaches our ears and we are able to hear the sound.
   • Have you ever heard of a “slinky” toy?  Slinkies are a great way to see how sound waves work.  
   • Optional: Video that demonstrates how sound travels using a slinky (Source: MightyOwl).
6. Close the slideshow presentation. Pull out your kazoo example. Blow into the kazoo and make a sound.  It causes a “hum” or “buzzing” feeling against the lips.  This “feeling” is a vibration.
7. Do a demonstration to show how sound travels in waves. Take out a bowl covered in plastic wrap (prepared in advance). Pour the sprinkles (or salt) on top of the saran wrap. You can reference this video: Vibration and sound (Source: Science buddies). It shows a student “humming” to make the sprinkles move. Instead of this, blow air into the kazoo over the top of the saran wrap to cause the sprinkles (or salt) to vibrate.  Sound waves make the plastic wrap vibrate (move very quickly), making the sprinkles “dance”.
8. If you don’t see the sprinkles or salt move across the plastic wrap, try moving the kazoo closer to the bowl, or humming louder.
9. Explain to students that it’s their turn to make their own kazoo.  After they are done, they can try making the sprinkles “dance” across the plastic wrap on the bowl.

Kazoo craft

1. Distribute the materials to each student. 1 paper towel tube per student.
2. Ask students to spend 15 minutes drawing pictures, colouring, decorating their paper towel tube with their colouring materials.
3. Distribute the pre-cut squares of wax paper and 1 rubber band per student.
4. Cover the top of the paper towel tube with the wax paper and secure with a rubber band. The wax paper should be tight across the top.
5. Poke a small hole into the paper towel tube to allow the sound to escape (use scissors, or a pen/pencil)
6. Try blowing into the kazoo (the mouthpiece is opposite from the wax paper end). 
7. Supervise the students as they blow their kazoo over the bowl. As they’re watching the sprinkles (or salt) “dance” across the saran wrap, ask questions to recall what they learned about vibrations, and sound waves.
   • What is happening when we don’t blow on the kazoo?
     • When we are not blowing on the kazoo, air is not hitting it.
     • There is no vibration.
   • Try talking into your kazoo.  What happens?
     • Air from your mouth moves through the kazoo.
     • It causes a vibration to happen.
   • What are the sprinkles doing? 
     • They're vibrating.
   • What does vibrating mean? 
     • Moving very fast.
   • How does sound travel?
     • Sound travels through the air in the form of sound waves.
   • How can our ears hear the sound?
     • Air and sound from our voice comes out of our mouth, hits the wax paper on the kazoo, and causes it to vibrate. The sound waves travel through the air and hits our ear, which causes us to hear the sound.