At the conclusion of our instrument family term I talked about sound waves. We've been talking about vibrations and what vibrates on the instrument/person to create the sound and the sound waves. So I found a couple of "experiments" on pinterest to try....... and..... they epically failed!! So I quickly changed the experiments around and used it to talk about different things. I grabbed some pictures so everyone could see how much fun we have in music!
I started with the oobleck (cornstarch and water), food coloring, and sub woofer tests. The oobleck was suppose to dance up and you should of been able to see all the waves. The original pin is here. It very well could have been that I was using a speaker and not an actual sub woofer but oh well!
So this was the set up. I sat against the wall and had the kids sit in front of my. I used a plastic drop cloth to protect myself from the janitor keep the carpet mostly clean!
So I set up my extra supplies to my left. Corn starch, water, food colorings, etc. I also kept the second experiment, which is the wine glass and glow sticks.
The speaker stayed on my left so I could easily move it out onto the plastic. As you can tell it's been well used and I have to clean it well tomorrow!
Set out the plastic drop cloth with the kids around it.
My mixer was to my right so I could change the volume when it got too loud. I have some dramatic kids!
And I set up my computer hooked to the mixer. I would have used my phone, but I couldn't get the tests to open. Oh well!
That may or may not be my guitar in the background on the floor. I need to reset it up again. Too many videos of people playing instruments.
Gotta keep a roll near by! I kept a wet cloth too so I could wipe my hands.
I poured the cornstarch into a small bowl. I used 1 cup of corn starch. Then I added 1/2 cup of water. It worked best on a 2:1 ratio cornstarch to water. I stirred it was well as I could with a spoon, but mostly I used my hand.
Yay Oobleck!
We spent about 10 minutes talking about the properties of oobleck. (That it's a solid when it is being touched or pressure is placed on it, and a liquid when left alone) I asked the kids if there was anything that they wanted tested. I didn't let the kids touch it because it was very messy and they did not have smocks on. They wanted to see what would happen if I rolled it into a ball, or punched it, or made it into a snake, etc. One student asked what would happen if I put some on my face. I did :) For the classes I knew I could trust, I let them punch the oobleck. I knew their fists wouldn't go through and they wouldn't get messy. They were so amazed that they could do that!
I placed some food color drops in a pattern for them.
And then placed it on the speaker. We played different hertz to see what the reaction would be. I used this website for the subwoofer tests. I used 20, 40, 50, 63, 100, 125, 400, 800, 10,000, and 20,000 hz.
They started to mix. We found that the best to see waves and bubbles was the 100 and 125 hertz, although we found that bubbles appear in all the hertz up to 125. When we went up to 400 if was vibrating too fast for the tray or speaker to move.
Yay Bubbles!
The bubbles and waves would stay after the speaker was turned off.
I thought I got a video but.... the one I got was bad! Boooooo!
After we talked about the oobleck we moved onto the water glass and glow sticks. The pin said that you were suppose to see an aura above the glass and then I read the comments and the woman said that it was only seen through a picture on a camera... Awesome... -_-
Here is the original pin.
So I changed it to running my finger around the edge and using the glow stick as a way to light up the water so the kids could see the surface vibrating. We used the time to talk about what is actually vibrating (water or the glass), how different water levels made different pitches, how the water was easier to see vibrating when it was close to the edge. I filled up the glass from empty to very full! It allowed the kids time to be really quiet so they could hear the low pitches of the very full glass.
I used two of the bracelet glow sticks because they fit perfectly in the glass. I ran my finger around. I had a good student put some water in my measuring cup so I could fill and empty as I please. Thank Goodness for a sink in my classroom!
As you can see... I was a mess!! But the kids really enjoyed it. They loved sitting in the dark looking at the waves.
Over all, it was a great two days! I repeated the lesson 10 times so each class got a chance to see it. Some of my horrible classes were even well behaved! So over all it was a good end to the week!
If you have any questions on what I did, feel free to ask!
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