Light+&+Sound

Grade 3 Topic Sound Energy: Echoes**
 * Arielle Evans


 * Engage:**

I Will begin the lesson by asking specific questions: Does anyone know what an echo is? Does anyone know what a sound wave is? What is happening when we hear an echo? -I will have the children gather on one side of the room, then have 2 of them yell "sound wave" and have the class listen for the echo. Then we will talk about what we heard. -Next, I will hold up a comforter with Mrs. Lutz and have the same 2 new students yell "sound wave" into that. Before doing this, I will ask them to predict what they think will happen to the echo. -Next, we will go into the hallway with a tennis ball. Pick one student to throw the ball at the wall. Then have one student throw the ball at the sleeping bag that is being held up in front of the wall. -After we do this, I will create a chart up on the board with the class putting the results into categories: Echoes or no Echoes. Ball bounces or ball does not bounce. Then we will discuss as a class what the results were. Both the echo and the bouncing balls involved reflection, whereas the yelling into the sleeping bag and throwing the tennis ball into the sleeping bag involved absorption. We will then go over these two key words and discuss how they are related to echos.


 * Explore**

For the explore part of my lesson, the class will be learning about how sounds can travel through solids, liquids, and gases. The solid used will be cups with string, the liquid will be water, and gas is the air. Before demonstrating, I will have to explain to the class that sound is produced through vibrations. I will do this by bringing in a drum, some jello, and a drum stick. I will ask a student to come up and hit the drum from the bottom and the class will be able to watch the sound vibrate the jello. This will be a great way to demonstrate sound waves and how they cause vibrations. -For the water, I will bring in plastic cups and straws. The students will hum a song through the straw into the water and will be able to hear the song through the liquid. I will ask the students to also hum through the straw when it is not in the liquid so that they can hear the difference in the sounds. -For solids, I will call students up one at a time, to listen to the string "phone" which will be placed one end on the drum, one end on the students ear, and I will tap the drum. The student will be able to hear the sound traveling all the way from the drum, through the string to the other cup. -For sound traveling through gases, we will use air, the echos are a great example, and also, just us talking as a class is another.


 * Explain**

Slinky Activity: Directions to students (Activity came from student's //Sound Energy// text.) 1. You and a partner will each hold one end of the slinky 2. One of you will be the sound source and the other will be the sound receiver 3. Walk about 2m away from your partner 4. The sound source should create a wave by gathering up a few coils with his or her free hand and releasing them. 5. Watch the wave move down the spring to the sound receiver 6. Move the spring toy different ways. Observe how it responds. 7. Explain the results. Use the word echo in your explanation. 8. Switch places, giving the slinky to the other group member to try. After this, have the students write a paragraph about what they think is happening in their science notebooks, or on a piece of notebook paper. Afterwards, the groups will share their results with the class and we will have a class discussion about the results. Collect the papers when the students are finished sharing!


 * Elaborate**

Following the slinky activity as a wrap-up/summary: I will give the students examples of places (Cliff, auditorium, cave, large field, middle of the ocean, mountains, ) and ask them which of those place will be the most likely to have an echo. I will make this part of my lesson a powerpoint of just pictures so the students can actually visualize what it is I am asking. Ask: Why is there an echo? Why not? ELABORATE ON YOUR ANSWERS!!


 * Evaluate**

I will constantly be evaluating them throughout the lesson. First, I will evaluate them as a whole in my engagement activity when we make our class chart. At the end of the lesson, I will assess the students by listening to them explain what they came up with in their "explain" part of the lesson, by talking about the slinky results. This will be the part that they are reflecting on their own learning as well. They will constantly be evaluated throughout the lesson because I will always be watching to make sure the students are on task. I will also collect their paragraphs and read them over after the lesson. Questions to be asked throughout lesson: What sounded different when we yelled sound wave into the blanket versus just the classroom? What is happening to the jello......Is it vibrating? Is the sound traveling through it? What is happening with the slinky?

