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Making Music in Nature
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In this activity, learners will explore the ways natural materials can produce sounds. Appropriate for any age, learners can make individual music or create a symphony with others.

String Thing
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String Thing is an interactive online game in which learners change a virtual string's tension, length, and gauge to create different musical pitches.

Cuica (Laughing Cup): Make a Musical Instrument
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In this activity, you'll use a paper cup, a piece of cloth, and some string to make a musical instrument called a cuica (pronounced KWEE-kah).

Drinking Straw Oboe
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In this quick activity (page 1 of the PDF under SciGirls Activity: Music and Sound), learners will construct an oboe-like instrument from a plastic drinking straw by cutting the end to split it into t

Torsion Drum
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In this activity, learners build a musical drum using a cardboard tube, plastic wrap, and beads.

Make Your Own Rainstick
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In this activity, leaners build their very own rainsticks, an instrument filled with pebbles and seeds that create sounds like falling rain. Save costs by using material found around the home.

Straw Pipes
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Learners build pan pipes out of drinking straws by cutting them to different lengths. Then, learners make music by blowing across the straws and playing some well-known songs.

Make Your Own Rain Stick
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This activity provides step-by-step instructions on how to build a rain stick, a musical instrument originating in South America.

Homegrown Xylophone
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In this activity, learners create music from a series of bottles filed with water. Learners discover that the sound produced by each bottle depends on the amount of water in the bottle.

Buzzing Bee
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In this activity, learners explore sound by constructing an instrument toy that buzzes when you swing it.

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.

Coffee-Can Cuíca
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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.

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.

Hilarious Honker
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Make a hilarious honker! Fasten a piece of string through a hole in the end of a plastic cup and discover the hilarious sounds you can make.

Chirping Bird
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In this activity, learners build a cuica or chirping bird using straw, string, and a bottle cap. Use this activity to explore the interplay of motion and sound.

Real Glass Xylophone
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In this activity, learners create a xylophone by filling glasses with different amounts of water and tapping them with a metal spoon.

Tune Booster
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In this activity, learners build unique sound enhancing inventions with items from around the house to amplify sound from their smart phone's speakers.