How does sound travel?
Download and reference First Grade: Exploring Missouri teacher guide pages 44-49 and student guide pages 26-30 for full lesson plan.
- Dog clicker or canning jar lid
- Slinky
- Tuning forks, one per three to four students
- Cup of water, one per three to four students
Teacher Note: Schoolyard map of area to explore under the Science Notebook Mapping Crickets Activity on student guide pg. 29 can be created prior to the lesson and distributed to each student.
2 hours
- Engage: 15 minutes
- Explore: 30 minutes
- Explain: 30 minutes
- Elaborate: 30 minutes
- Evaluate: 15 minutes
Lesson Extensions
Math
The loudest song in Missouri (and North America) is produced by the robust conehead katydid. It can be heard up to 500 meters (or 1640 feet) away! How long is your schoolyard/school building? Take your students outside to measure the length of the building. Students can count their steps. How many more building lengths would it take to get to 1640 feet? (Give an estimate to your students such as 5 more building lengths.) Could you hear a robust katydid calling from one end of your schoolyard to the other? On a warm warmer night, these katydids can move their wings over 200 times per second to produce these loud calls! The warmer the night, the more they rub.
Music
Ask the music teacher to demonstrate sound and vibrations using drums or cymbals. How do these instruments make sound? Can you feel the vibrations from the instrument(s)? Talk about how they make sound.
Art
Collaborate with the art teacher to have students draw a map of the schoolyard. Students can also use art materials such as clay to build a model.