Search Results
Showing results 1 to 20 of 31

Build a Bell Bracelet
Source Institutions
Learners make bell bracelets, place them on their wrists or ankles, and then dance to the rhythms and sounds the bells make. Many cultures use ankle or wrist bells to make music during dancing.
Musical Coathanger
Source Institutions
In this activity, learners turn an ordinary metal coat-hanger into a (very quiet) musical instrument.

Cuica (Laughing Cup): Make a Musical Instrument
Source Institutions
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
Source Institutions
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

What's the Buzz?
Source Institutions
In this activity, learners construct a playable kazoo from inexpensive materials. They will experience how vibration creates sound waves and music.

Make a Shaker
Source Institutions
This hands-on activity shows you how to make a shaker -- a small instrument with a big sound! Fill it with beads or even pennies for a cool sound.

Straw Kazoo
Source Institutions
In this activity, learners make some music by constructing a kazoo out of a simple plastic drinking straw. Use this activity to explore sound, vibrations, and music.

Make Your Own Rainstick
Source Institutions
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
Source Institutions
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.

The Straw Flute
Source Institutions
In this is activity about sound and vibration, learners create their own 'flutes' with drinking straws, then investigate how changing the length of the straw affects the sounds that are produced.

Bee Hummer
Source Institutions
In this activity, learners investigate sound and vibration by making a "bee hummer"--a toy that sounds like a swarm of buzzing bees when you spin it around.

Shake and Match
Source Institutions
In this activity, learners create a hearing based memory game that they can share with friends.
Movin' and Groovin'
Source Institutions
In this math activity, learners play a game and identify patterns with fun moves and sounds. Discover how dancing and signing involve patterns.

Sound Sandwich
Source Institutions
With a straw, two craft sticks, and some rubber bands, construct a noisemaker called a Sound Sandwich and explore how vibration produces sound.

Waterbottle Membranophone
Source Institutions
In this activity, you'll use a straw, a water bottle and a paper tube to make an instrument that's very much like a saxophone.

CANdemonium: Make a Drum Out of Recycled Cans
Source Institutions
With three cans and some tape, make a drum that you bonk down on any surface to produce a variety of sounds. This activity also teaches you about pitch, vibration, and frequency.

Soggy Science, Shaken Beans
Source Institutions
Learners explore soybeans, soak them in water to remove their coat, and then split them open to look inside. They also make a musical shaker out of paper cups, a cardboard tube, and soybeans.

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.

Falling Rhythm
Source Institutions
Listen to the beat of gravity. By taking two strings with weights tied to them at different, yet uniform intervals, you can hear the uniformity (and rhythm) of gravity's accelerating pull.