Search Results
Showing results 1 to 20 of 21
The Rumblin' Road: Determining distance to a Thunderstorm
Source Institutions
In this activity, learners discover how to determine the distance to a lightning strike or nearby thunderstorm.
Matraca
Source Institutions
In this activity, learners create a traditional Mexican noisemaker (a matraca) using cardboard, craft sticks, and a wooden dowel.
Extreme Sounds
Source Institutions
This activity (on page 2 of the PDF under SciGirls Activity: Extreme Sounds) is a full inquiry investigation into sound.
Cup Speaker
Source Institutions
Make your own speaker with a magnet, wire, and paper cup! If you have a radio with a headphone plug and an old pair of headphones, this is a great tinkering activity.
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.
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!
Making Vocal Cords
Source Institutions
In this activity, learners imitate the way vocal cords work by building a model from a plastic cup, rubber band, and a straw.
Pickle-oh!: Musical Pickle Instrument
Source Institutions
What's a Pickle-Oh? Two pieces of pickle on a stick are connected to a Pico Cricket (micro controller). When you slide the pickles apart the note changes.
Cactus Needle Phonograph
Source Institutions
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.
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.
Music and Sound
Source Institutions
This activity (on page 2 of the PDF under SciGirls Activity: Music and Sound) is a full inquiry investigation into sound frequency.
Pipes of Pan
Source Institutions
Create an instrument that you don't play--you just listen to it through tubes of various lengths.
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.
Conversation Piece
Source Institutions
Focus sound through a balloon! In this Exploratorium activity, you'll use dry ice to create a balloon that's a sound lens.
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.
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.
Headphone Helper
Source Institutions
In this design challenge activity, learners add headphones to a previously built instrument (see "Build a Band" activity) to make it easier to hear.
Doppler Effect
Source Institutions
Sound changes pitch relative to how you or the source of the sound is moving. Use this simple activity developed by the Exploratorium to experience the Doppler Effect yourself!
Let's Make Music
Source Institutions
In this activity, learners will create their own percussion instrument with recycled materials. Learners will explore design, fabrication, cause and effect and sound through this activity.
Air Cannon
Source Institutions
In this quick and easy activity, learners build an air cannon "drum" and see what happens when they "shoot" puffs of air at different targets.