Start collecting wire coat hangers now! The Noisy Coat hanger experiment is a good lesson starter to show just how much louder sounds are when they travel to your ears via a solid rather than air. Go on to ask students to use particle theory to explain the difference.
Unusually, the instructions for this experiment are available in multiple languages, so you could use the resource during a Science Week to bring science to a Spanish or French lesson.
Sound 11-14, from the Institute of Physics, is packed with high-quality information, along with plenty of detail about a good variety of activities. It takes a little bit of time to understand how the resource is structured but it’s well worth the effort.
Each of the two main topics (Describing sound and Quantifying and using sound) contains three sections: Experienced teachers may want to turn straight to the Teaching Approaches section, whilst those outside their specialist area are likely to appreciate the background information provided by the Physics Narratives and the key points to bring out when working with students provided in the Teaching and Learning Issues.
Explore the role of Acoustic Engineers
For a longer project or an off-timetable day, Physics in concert is highly recommended. The idea is that students play the roles of sound engineer, lighting engineer, and electrical engineer when thinking about the physics behind putting on a music festival. You could use the Sounds Good videos to help students to understand the role of university research scientists in working with Sound engineers to control the quality of sound in a theatre.
The video Sound Design looks at the structural design of the O2 building in Dublin. This is a purpose-built music venue with a capacity of 14,000 people, designed to provide unrestricted views and excellent acoustics. The film shows the exciting role of acoustic engineers and explains how they developed criteria from the customer’s brief. Key areas considered included reverberation, sound absorption, and insulation before building an acoustic model to test the suitability of different materials.