Physics of Sound

Lesson #3: How Length & Tension Affect Pitch

FOSS Investigation 2: Part 2 and Part 3
Teacher: Stephanie Raper

Big Idea
Sound discrimination gives us information that allows us to communicate. Sound originates from a source,
travels through a medium, and arrives at a receiver. Sound is caused by vibrations that affect pitch and
volume.

Standards
Performance Expectation:
4-PS4-1. Develop a model of waves to describe patterns in terms of amplitude and wavelength and that waves
can cause objects to move.

Science Practice(s): Disciplinary Core Idea(s): Cross-Cutting Concept(s):

Constructing Explanations and
Designing Solutions
Use evidence (e.g. observations
and patterns) to construct an
explanation.
---
Scientific Knowledge is Based on
Empirical Evidence (N.o.S.)
 Science findings are based
on recognizing patterns
PS4.A Wave Properties
 Waves of the same type
can differ in amplitude
(height of the wave) and
wavelength (spacing
between wave peaks)
Patterns
 Similarities and differences
in patterns can be used to
sort, classify, and analyze
simple rates of change for
natural phenomena

Learning Goals
Students will be able to use models to observe patterns in how length and tension change the pitch of an
object’s vibrations by sorting and classifying objects by pitch.
 Students will be able to use a variety of instruments as models to observe patterns in how length and
tension affect pitch. (SEP)
o Student Friendly: “Scientific Practice: Look for patterns in your observations”
 Students will be able to describe how the length and tension of a sound source affects the rate of
vibrations and therefore the pitch. (DCI)
o Student Friendly: “How does changing an object’s length change the pitch of the sound that
object makes? How does changing the tension change the pitch of the sound?”

Materials, Resources, & Advance Preparation

Make a list of all resources, materials, and any advance preparation a teacher would need in order to
implement your lesson. Specify whether amounts needed are per student/per group/per class or to be used by
the teacher only.

For Each Group:

 4 assessment sheets
 4 student sheets no. 6 “The Waterphone”
 4 student sheets no. 7 “The Xylophone”
 4 student sheets no. 8 “The Kalimba”
 4 student sheets no. 9 “The String Beam”

 4 student sheets no. 11 “The Minigutbucket”

 4 student sheets no. 12 “The FOSS-ulele”

For the Class:

 1 double bubble
 2 waterphones
 2 xylophones
 2 kalimbas
 2 string beams

 8 minigutbuckets
 4 FOSS-uleles

Engage Phase (15 min.)

Describe the activities of the teacher and students in this phase of instruction related to:
● Eliciting students’ prior knowledge (e.g., formative assessment probe, etc.)
● Setting the context for learning to ‘hook’ student interest and motivate learning
● Specify how you will know students are ready to move to the next phase of the lesson

[Students will be at their desks]

Students will be given an initial ideas probe that includes common misconceptions about pitch (see end of this
document). Students will return to this probe in the evaluation phase.
 Common misconceptions worked into the probe are…
o volume and pitch are the same (louder sounds have a higher pitch)
o hitting an object harder or softer changes it’s pitch
o the pitch of a tuning fork will change as it “slows down”

[Students will move to the carpet]

I will bring out a ukulele and play a little bit. I will ask who knows what this instrument is called? It’s a
ukulele and it’s an instrument from Hawaii. How do you think the ukulele makes sound? Turn and tell a
partner. Hint: what was our answer to the investigative question last week? (What is sound? Sound is
vibrations.) Ask a student if they can explain how the ukulele makes sound (I am hitting the stings, which
makes the strings vibrate, which causes sound). We also learned about one property of sound called volume.
Turn and talk with a different partner about how the vibrations of a loud sound are different than the
vibrations of a quiet sound. Who can tell me how I can make a loud sound on the ukulele? How can I make a
quiet sound?
 Create double bubble comparing and contrasting volume and pitch. Explicitly say “Volume and pitch
are both properties of sound, but they are two very different properties. They are not the same thing.”
Fill out volume’s bubbles, and one bubble for pitch (how high or low a sound is). Turn and tell a
partner how pitch is different than volume.

Today we will be exploring a different property of sound called pitch. Pitch means how high or low a sound
is. When demonstrating high and low pitch, everyone will hold their forearm upright and move it left to right,
faster for high pitch and slower for low pitch, to demonstrate how the frequency of vibrations changes with
the pitch. (Add to word bank.) Each of the strings on my ukulele makes a different sound. Which string has a
higher pitch? Put 1 finger up for string 1 and 2 fingers up for string 2. These strings are all made of the same
thing, so why do you think they make sounds that are different pitches?

I will know students are ready to move on when they have shared their ideas about pitch.

Exploration Phase (45 min.)

Describe the activities of the teacher and students in this phase of instruction related to:
● Intellectual engagement with relevant phenomena that provide evidence for the targeted idea
● Outline examples of productive questions you will use to facilitate their explorations
● Specify how you will know students are ready to move to the next phase of the lesson

This week we will be trying to answer this question: How does changing an object’s length change the pitch
of the sound it makes? (Question will also be posted on the whiteboard for reference throughout the lesson)
We will be observing four instruments and looking for patterns in our observations to investigate our big
question this week. That is something that scientists do. They look for patterns in their observations to try to
explain a scientific idea. (This SEP will be also be posted on the board for reference throughout the lesson)

Students will be divided into four groups, each group will spend 10 minutes exploring four different
instruments at four stations. I will use the triangle chime to indicate when it is time to rotate.
 The Kalimba: students will be told that a kalimba is an African thumb piano
 The Waterphone: students will be told that they must hit the bottle below the water line with the mallet
 The Xylophone: this instrument will be familiar to students from the probe given in the engage phase
 The String Beam: students will be told that this instrument is not very loud so they must listen closely

Before being released to the stations, we will review class behavior norms (what it means to be a good group
member, keeping noise levels low so that everyone can hear the instruments etc.)

At each station students will read the directions from their student sheets and explore how the pitch the
instrument makes changes as the length of the object changes. Teachers will facilitate student’s thinking by
asking the following questions as the students are at each station:
 What do you hear?
 What do you notice about the pitch these objects make?
 In what ways are the bottles/tubes etc. the same? How are they different?
  Can you organize the sound sources based on the pitch they make?
 Can you describe a pattern in the length of the sound source and the pitch it makes?

To wrap up the first day, students will be given time to look at their observations from the four stations and
discuss in small groups any patterns that they see in how length affects pitch.

Students will be ready to move on to the next phase of the lesson once everyone has had time to explore all
four instruments and record their observations related to pitch and length.

---End of Day 1---

Explanation Phase (10 min.)

Describe the activities of the teacher and students in this phase of instruction related to:
● Engaging in productive talk
● Comparing prior knowledge to the new evidence
● Using evidence to support and critique claims
● Understanding and using academic language
● Specify how you will know students are ready to move to the next phase of the lesson

---Start of Day 2---

[Students will be at their desks]

Review the SEP (looking for patterns) and investigative question: How does changing an object’s length
change the pitch of the sound it makes?
Class discussion on the observations each group made about each of the four instruments. Each group will be
given one of the instruments to demonstrate to the class how to play a low pitch sound and how to play a high
pitch sound. I will use the following talk moves to facilitate the discussion:
 What patterns did you observe?
o Can you say more about that? Can you give an example?
o How did you come to that conclusion? What’s your evidence?
o Do you agree or disagree? Why?
o Would anyone like to add on to what ________ just said?
o Who thinks they can explain what ________ said in their own words?
 Can we answer the investigative question?
o Write on the board “Longer objects make _________ pitch sounds. Shorter objects make
_______ pitch sounds.” Provide word bank of higher and lower on the board.
 How did looking for patterns help us answer our question?
The class will create a generalized statement about how the length of the sound source affects the pitch of the
sound and the frequency of the vibrations. (Add to TWL chart)
 We saw a pattern that the length of an object changes the pitch of the sound. Does the length of an
object also change the volume of the sound? (No!) How does the volume of a sound change?

Students will be ready to move on to the next phase when they have demonstrated an understanding that
shorter sound sources create higher pitched sounds and can justify this claim with evidence from the
investigation.
 Extension Phase (35 min.)

Describe the activities of the teacher and students in this phase of instruction related to:
● Sense-making and applying the concepts to new contexts or problems
● Specify how you will know students are ready to move to the next phase of the lesson

Students will rotate through two more stations, this time exploring how tension affects pitch. We will begin
by discussing what is tension? Tension is the action of stretching an object tight. Everyone will demonstrate
tension by making their body tense and then relaxed. (Add tension to the word bank) We will then tell
students they will be investigating how tension affects pitch using two more instruments as models, the
minigutbucket and the FOSS-ulele. We will have two minigutbucket stations and two FOSS-ulele stations
with one WWU teacher at each station.

Students will be following instructions on the student sheets and recording their observations there. After
groups have had 10 minutes at both stations, we will come back together at the carpet for a class discussion to
share our observations.
 How did you change the tension of the strings on the two instruments?
 What happened to the pitch of the sound produced by the string as you changed the tension of the
strings?
 What happens to the pitch when the tension on a sound source changes?
 How is the length of the sound source and tension related?
 Are the objects vibrating when they make sound? Does the vibration change as the length and tension
change?
I will use the following talk moves to facilitate the discussion:
 What patterns did you observe?
 Can you say more about that? Can you give an example?
 How did you come to that conclusion? What’s your evidence?
 Do you agree or disagree? Why?
 Would anyone like to add on to what ________ just said?
 Who thinks they can explain what ________ said in their own words?
 Can we answer the investigative question?
o Write on board “More tension on an object makes the pitch _________. Less tension on an
object makes the pitch _________.”
 How did looking for patterns help us answer our question?
The class will create a generalized statement about how the tension of the sound source affects the pitch of the
sound and the frequency of the vibrations. (Add to TWL chart)
 We saw a pattern that the tension of an object changes the pitch of the sound. Does the tension of an
object also change the volume of the sound? (No!) How does the volume of a sound change?

Students will be ready to move on to the next phase of the lesson when they can articulate that more tension
in the sound source creates a higher pitched sound and use evidence from the investigation to support their
claim.

Evaluation Phase (15 min.)

Describe the activities of the teacher and students in this phase of instruction related to:
● Assessing whether students have met the learning target (including self-assessment or reflection)
● The criteria for evaluating student performance and providing feedback
● Specify how you will know students are ready to move to the next lesson

We will return to our double bubble comparing and contrasting volume and pitch. We will review how they
are similar and how they are different and complete all the bubbles for pitch. I will ask are volume and pitch
the same thing? (No!) Then I will ask students to turn and talk with a partner about one thing that is different
about volume and pitch.

I will bring back the ukulele and play each string separately. I will ask students again why they think each
string has a different pitch. First they will discuss with a partner, then share answers with the class. When a
student suggests the strings might be different lengths, I will ask for a volunteer to come up and help me
measure each string. We will record how long each string is on the board, and I will ask them to predict which
string will make the highest pitch. I will then have a student volunteer test their prediction and we’ll discuss
why it was correct or incorrect. Then I’ll share with the class that you can also change the pitch of each string
by increasing or decreasing the tension, this is called tuning. I always forget which way to turn the knob to
make to pitch increase, so I will ask for their help. I will pluck a string as I turn the knob and have them listen
to the pitch. I will ask them if I am making the string more tense or less tense. They will tell a partner why
and then share out answers.

After this review of how pitch changes because of properties of the sound source, I will pass back students’
probes from the engage phase that got at common misconceptions about pitch. Students will use another color
to circle which answer they most agree with now and explain what evidence from the models support their
thinking.

High: Understands the relationships between length, tension and pitch and can provide evidence to support
their claims.
Medium: Can correctly identify how length and tension changes pitch, but is unable to provide supporting
evidence. Can correctly identify how length changes pitch, but not tension, or vice versa.
Low: Cannot correctly identify the relationship between length, tension, and pitch.

Students will be ready to move on to the next lesson when they have demonstrated through the ukulele
conversation and misconception probe that they:
 Are able to use a variety of instruments as models to observe patterns in how length and tension affect
pitch. (SEP)
 Are able to describe how the length and tension of a sound source affects the rate of vibrations and
therefore the pitch. (DCI)
Name: _____________________________

How Pitch Changes

Bars

Mallets

This is an instrument called a xylophone. You play the instrument by hitting the bars with the mallets.
The bars are all exactly the same, except for their length. Each bar makes a sound with a different
pitch.

Three students are trying to play the highest pitch and the lowest pitch possible on the xylophone.
They each have different ideas about how to do this. Circle the answer you most agree with.

Guadalupe: “The pitch of the sound an object makes depends on the length of the object. To
make the highest pitch sound we should hit the shortest bar, and to make the lowest pitch sound we
should hit the longest bar.”

Matteo: “The pitch of the sound an object makes depends on how hard you hit the object. To make
the highest pitch sound we should hit the bar as hard as we can, and to make the lowest pitch sound
we should hit the bar as gently as we can.”

Corinna: “The pitch of the sound an object makes changes as the sound gets quieter and then
stops vibrating. We should hit a bar and listen to the sound change. Right after we hit the bar the
sound will have the highest pitch, and as we listen to the sound get quieter the pitch will get lower.
The sound will have the lowest pitch right before it stops making any sound at all.”