Crystal Burns

Physical Science Lesson Plan

Sound Waves Phenomenon

Grade 4 Lesson Plan
(Adapted from The Phenomenon of Sound: Waves on Discovery Education)

Essential Questions:
What is sound?
Do sound waves travel through anything? If so what?
What happens to sound waves when they encounter an object?

Enduring Understandings:
Sound is a form of energy that travels in waves also known as compressional waves.
Sound waves can travel through different mediums: solids, liquids, and gases.
Sound waves travel in a given direction until an outside force or object gets in the way of
its motion and reflects it.

Assessments:
While students are preforming experiments at each station I will be walking around
checking to make sure they are preforming the experiments correctly and checking for
students understanding by asking questions.
Students will be drawing a diagram of the experiment, recording their answers to
questions from the lesson worksheet, and recording their findings in their Science
Journal. After the students are completed with all six stations I will review their
diagrams, answers, and findings to check for students comprehension.
After the experiments are completed, the following day students will complete a brief
post assessment answering the essential questions. This assessment will check students
comprehension and understanding of the lesson.

NGSS:
Practices:
o 4. Analyzing and Interpreting Data
Concepts:
o 5. Energy and Matter
Core Ideas:
o PS3.A 3-5: Energy

Materials & Supplies:

Drum
A few Paper clips
Tuning fork
Basin of Water
Rubber band strung between two pegs or nails
Metal fork and spoon
Steel yardstick or ruler

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Physical Science Lesson Plan

Musical instruments or a musical tape, record, or CD

A Slinky
A set of glasses and a spoon for each group of students
Science Journals
6 copies of Lesson Worksheet
o There will be a copy at each station and students will need to record their answers
to the questions in their science journals.

5E Model:
Engage (Begin each lesson/day with the following)
o Ask students the following questions:
How do we hear sound?
How does sound travel when you have a conversation with another
person?
If there is no one around and a tree falls in the woods does it make a
sound? Why or why not?
Why is it in some places there are echoes? (Empty rooms, long empty
hallways, cathedrals, caves, canyons, mountain ranges, etc.)
o Play some soft music and ask students how they are able to hear it?
Have students record their answers/hypothesis in their science journal.
o Only needs to be done on the second day:
Review what students discovered the previous day and how their answers
to the previous questions have changed, if any, since yesterday?

Explore (Do three stations a day)

o Break students into six groups (one group per station)
o Explain that each group will be visiting three stations on the first day, and then
will visit the remaining stations the following day.
o Go over the requirements for students while at each station
Draw a diagram of the experiment & Label it 1 6.
Preform experiment: directions are located at each station.
Answer the rest of the questions on the worksheet posted in each station in
your science journal.

o Lab Station #1: Drum with paper clips on the top.

First tap on the drum with nothing on it and observe.
Then place paper clips on top of the drum and tap on the drum to observe
what happens to the paper clips.
o Lab Station #2: Voice Experiment
Touch side of your throat and say ahh.
o Lab Station #3: Tuning Fork in Water.
Gently strike the tuning fork on the table and then place it in the water.
o Lab Station #4: Rubber Bands
Rubber band strung between two pegs or nails.
Pluck the rubber band and observe what is happening to the rubber band.
o Lab Station #5: Utensils

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Strike a fork with another utensil and bring it close to the ear.
o Lab Station #6: Steel yardstick/ruler
Place the yardstick/ruler on the edge of the table (half on the table and half
off the table).
Hold one end of the ruler firmly against the table and snap the other end.

Explain
o Have students combine into 3 groups (combine two groups into one) and revisit
their original idea about sound. Have students discuss in their groups their
findings from each experiment. Ask students the questions what went along with
their observation (what did you see, what did you hear, what was the source of the
vibration, etc.) and compare between the two groups. As a class, the teacher will
record their findings as a class, review what their previous predictions were, and
talk about the new information students have found out and learned.

Elaborate
o Read Sound Waves (Energy in Action) by Ian F. Mahaney
o Add scientific vocabulary to students observations and findings
Sound
Energy traveling away from a vibrating object.
Wave
A transfer of energy as it travels away from the source of energy.
Medium
A material (solid, liquid, or gas) through which a sound wave
travels.
Vibrate
To move rapidly back and forth
Compressional wave
A wave that carries sound energy.
Energy
The ability to perform.

o Have students revisit their diagrams and label them with their new vocabulary.
o In students science journals have them use the vocabulary to explain what
happens when two people are having a conversation and the way sound originates
and travels.

Evaluate
o Students will answer the essential questions and explain how they know their
answer is correct, provided to them on a worksheet.

Adaptions:
Final assessment can be done orally, typed, or hand written depending on the students
skill level. Directions for each station will be provided orally, written down on the board,
printed out with more details, and/or depicted through pictures based on the students

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needs. Students journals may be typed and include photographs for substitution of
diagrams.

Level of Inquiry:
Structured

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