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Showing results 21 to 38 of 38

Slide Whistle
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In this activity, learners build a slide whistle using PVC pipe, bamboo skewer, and piece of foam. Construction of the instrument is relatively simple.

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

Clap Sensor: Build a Sound Sensor Using a Pico Cricket
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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.

Sound Representation: Modems Unplugged
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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.

Audio Boggle: Make a Sound Track
Source Institutions
Audio Boggle is an activity that lets you listen to a track (that you make yourself) and see what you can hear!

Fruit Xylophone: Fruit Salad Instrument of the Future!
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This is a perfect summertime lunch activity! Pico Cricket is required (micro controller). First, get a bunch of cut up fruit, line them up, then plug a piece of fruit with a Pico Cricket sensor clip.

Coffee-Can Cuíca
Source Institutions
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.

A Kazoo for YOU
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In this activity, learners will build an instrument from common household items. Explore sound through vibrations created by your vocal chords and captured by an instrument.

Modulated Coil: Hear the magnet!
Source Institutions
Do you have an extra portable cassette tape player hanging around?

Lagging Sound
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In this group activity, learners see and hear the speed of sound. A learner designated the "gonger" hits a gong, once every second, as the rest of the group watches and listens from a distance.

CD Spectrometer
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In this activity, learners use a compact disc to make a spectrometer, an instrument used to measure properties of light.

Cactus Needle Phonograph
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Build a phonograph record player using a cactus needle, a record, LEGOs gear box, and a piece of paper! This activity uses a Pico Cricket to turn the motor.

Make a Speaker: A Coil, a Magnet, and Thou
Source Institutions
Make your own simple speaker so you can listen to your favorite radio station. Just wind a coil, attach it to a piece of cardboard or Styrofoam, hold a magnet nearby, and listen.

Kinetic Sculpture: Program the Pico Cricket to Make Your Art Light Up or Spin
Source Institutions
Use a Pico Cricket (micro-controller) to animate your art! You can program a Pico Cricket to make your art spin, light up, or make music.

Electric Cup Guitar
Source Institutions
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.

Good Vibrations
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This lesson (on pages 15-24 of PDF) explores how sound is caused by vibrating objects. It explains that we hear by feeling vibrations passing through the air.

How to Make an Audio Tape Bow
Source Institutions
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.

AM in the PM
Source Institutions
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.