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In this activity, learners explore how musical instruments are engineered.

In this activity, learners create a traditional Mexican noisemaker (a matraca) using cardboard, craft sticks, and a wooden dowel.

With a bit of PVC, a laser, a can/cup, and a small mirror, you can make a device that visualizes you voice or any sound transmitted into the cup/can.

In this activity, learners construct wands that play different notes depending on information from light sensors programmed via a PICO Cricket.

In this activity/demo about piezoelectricity, learners discover how some crystals produce electricity when squeezed.

This activity requires a Pico Cricket (tiny computer). Learners work on designing and building a sound sensor out of household materials, like plastic wrap and cardboard.

In this activity, learners listen to songs and decode hidden messages based on the same principle as a modem. As a final challenge, learners decode the binary messages in a music video.

Make a cuíca (“kwee-ka”), a traditional Brazilian musical instrument that originated in Africa. Played primarily in Brazil, now you can play it at home, too, with this Exploratorium produced activity.

Do you have an extra portable cassette tape player hanging around?

Make a one-string "guitar" by stringing a cup with some fishing line. You amplify the plucking of the string by placing a piezo contact microphone and mini battery powered amplifier inside the cup.

From this How To slide show, you create an Audio Tape Bow that can play distorted audio sounds by running it across a tape head.

In this activity, learners will listen to as many radio stations as possible to discover that AM radio signals can travel many hundreds of miles at night.