1. Sound Energy Grade 4 Big Idea 10 SC.4.P.10.3 Pacing Guide – Quarter 2
Department of Science

2. SOUND
SC.4.P.10.3 – Investigate and explain that sound is produced by vibrating objects and that pitch depends on how fast or slow the object vibrates.
Department of Science

3. Sound Waves Exploration use with cup telephone activity
Sound Fundamental
Sound (glossary)
Pitch (glossary)
Sound Waves Exploration use with cup telephone activity
How does sound get from the object that is making the sound to our ears so that we can hear it?
How Sounds are Different? (intro to volume and pitch)
Volume
Sound: A Review
Pitch Switcher
Pitch Exploration
Just do the sound faundamental
Department of Science

4. Sounds are all around us. Listen…
What sounds did you hear in the video?
Birds squawking. Fireworks exploding. Firewood snapping. Dogs barking. Chimes chiming.
Shh! What can you hear in our classroom?
We hear the voices of others talking around us, machines running, things moving, and more.
What is sound?
Sound is a form of energy produced by a vibration or a back and forth movement of an object.
Let’s try out the Sound Fundamental on Discovery Education.
Engage: Display focus question: What is sound? Brainstorm and discuss with students a list of all the different sounds they have heard.
Workbook p. 141A pre-assessment. Briefly play some music from an electronic device that has a speaker. Turn it off and place a paper plate on a speaker. Then pour some rice or salt on the plate. Play the music again. Let students see how the sound causes the rice or salt to vibrate and form a ripple wave pattern.
Explore: Teacher can facilitate Quick Activity from SF TE p. 454 with a pencil, string, and a straw Or See handout: Exploring Sound and give students different sizes of rubber bands, and plastic cups to explore sound. Students reflect on their explorations in their journals/notebooks.
Explain: Teacher and students read/discuss What is Sound? Pp top of p. using illustration of guitar and wavelengths with captions, too.
Also use Scott Foresman online resources: Gr. 5 Take it to the Net: Physical Science Game: Sound Energy; Watts Notes: Sound. Set up a class and get access to Discovery Video # 26.
Extend pitch concept with the lab: Can you Make Different Sounds with a Ruler? (see handout.)
With either strategy have students take notes of the key concepts.
Department of Science

5. How does sound get from the object that is making the sound to our ears so that we can hear it? We hear sounds because the vibrations created travel through the air to our ears. Notice that when people want to hear something better they often cup their hand around their ear. This is to help them catch the sound waves. The shape of our ears helps us catch sound waves.
Explore/Explain: Click on the hyperlink: How does sound get from the object that is making the sound to our ears so that we can hear it? Discuss.
Department of Science

6. Does sound travel through other materials?
A sound is made when any matter, gas, liquid or a solid, vibrates.
Sound must travel through matter to be heard.
Sound travels by sending vibrations through matter called waves.
Sound can travel through air, water, wood, and all kinds of matter.
Department of Science

7. Let’s Talk on the Telephone
Materials
= Directions =
2 empty plastic cups
Scissors
String
lab partner
Lab notebook & pencil
2 paper clips
Using a pencil poke a hole in the center of the bottom of each of the plastic cups.
Using the scissors cut a piece of string that is about 4.5 meters long.
Thread the end of the string through the hole in the cup.
Have your partner pull the string a few inches through the cup then help them tie the end of the string in a knot so that the string can’t pull back through the cup. You can also attach a paper clip to the knot to stop the string from slipping back through the cup.
Repeat steps 3 and 4 with the other end of the string and the other cup.
Have your partner walk away until the string is tight. Tell him or her to hold the cup up to their ear while you whisper loudly into your cup.
Write and draw your observations in your notebook.
Department of Science

8. Let’s Talk on the Telephone Making Connections
Can your partner hear what you are saying?
Now it’s your partner’s turn to talk. Can you hear what he or she is saying?
What is happening?
When your partner talks into their cup, this causes the air inside their cup to start vibrating. The vibrations then travel through the cup, into the string and into the other cup. The 2nd cup channels the vibrating air molecules into your ear so you can hear what they are saying loud and clear.
What happens if the string between the cups isn’t pulled tight? Will the telephone work as well?
If the string is loose, the sound vibrations will die out before they reach the other cup. 
What happens if we pinch the string between the two cups? Can we hear each others
voice as well?
For the cup telephone to work, the string between the two cups must be able to vibrate freely. That’s why if the string is pinched the vibrations are disrupted and your partner can’t hear your voice as well.
Department of Science

9. Sound Travels Through Matter
Gases
Most of the sounds we hear travel through gases, such as air.
Sound waves travel slowly through the air.
For example: Sound from a bell, a horn, or an alarm clock travels through the air.
Liquids
Some sounds that we hear travel through water.
Sound waves travel faster through water than through the air.
Sonar is the way to use sounds to locate objects under water.
What animals use sonar?
Solids
Some sounds that we hear travel through solids.
Sound waves travel very fast through solids.
For example: When you hit a drum, it vibrates, then the sound travels through the air, to your ears.
Department of Science

10. How are sounds different?
Sounds can be loud or soft.
How loud or soft a sound is called volume.
How else are sounds different?
Sounds can be high or low.
How high or low a sound is called the pitch.
What are properties of sound?
Loudness and pitch are properties of sound.
Department of Science

11. What else is sound?
Sound is energy waves. The waves are made by vibrations. When you play a musical instrument, you hear high as well as low sounds. The highness or lowness of a sound is known as the pitch of a sound. Let’s find out what determines the pitch of a sound.
Let’s try out Pitch Exploration .
Department of Science

12. What is Pitch?
The faster the vibrations or the frequency, the higher the sound.
How high or low a sound is called the pitch.
Let’s build a Pitch Switcher
Explore: ahead of time open Pitch Switcher and look over directions and materials needed for students to do the hnads-on pitch activity.
Department of Science

13. What is Sound? Sound is a form of energy produced by a
vibration or a back and forth movement of an object.
Sound is a wave of vibrations that spread from its source of its matter.
The more vibrations the waves have, the more energy, the louder the sound.
The faster the vibrations or the frequency, the higher the sound.
How high or low a sound is called the pitch.
Engage: Display focus question: What is sound? Brainstorm and discuss with students a list of all the different sounds they have heard.
Workbook p. 141A pre-assessment. Briefly play some music from an electronic device that has a speaker. Turn it off and place a paper plate on a speaker. Then pour some rice or salt on the plate. Play the music again. Let students see how the sound causes the rice or salt to vibrate and form a ripple wave pattern.
Explore: Teacher can facilitate Quick Activity from SF TE p. 454 with a pencil, string, and a straw Or See handout: Exploring Sound and give students different sizes of rubber bands, and plastic cups to explore sound. Students reflect on their explorations in their journals/notebooks.
Explain: Teacher and students read/discuss What is Sound? Pp top of p. using illustration of guitar and wavelengths with captions, too.
Also use Scott Foresman online resources: Gr. 5 Take it to the Net: Physical Science Game: Sound Energy; Watts Notes: Sound. Set up a class and get access to Discovery Video # 26.
Extend pitch concept with the lab: Can you Make Different Sounds with a Ruler? (see handout.)
With either strategy have students take notes of the key concepts.
Department of Science

14. Let’s Explore! Sound Energy Stations
How does sound travel through air?
How does sound travel through a liquid?
How does sound travel through a solid?
Station #2 -How is sound made?
Station #3- How can you make different sounds with a ruler?
Station #4 – Good Vibrations!
Pitch Switcher
Reflection:
What do you know about sound now?
Download Grade 4 essential lab 5 Sound energy Student Exploration Booklet and TE from Learning Village, Science Pacing Guides Gr. 4 Q2 labs.
Note: Each station can also be done one at a time with each group in the classroom doing the same station.
Department of Science

15. What is Pitch?
The faster the vibrations or the frequency, the higher the sound.
How high or low a sound is called the pitch.
Let’s build a Pitch Switcher
Explore: ahead of time open Pitch Switcher and look over directions and materials needed for students to do the hnads-on pitch activity.
Department of Science

16. Sound is a form of energy produced by a
vibration or a back and forth movement of an object.
Sound is a wave of vibrations that spread from its source of its matter.
The more vibrations the waves have, the more energy, the louder the sound.
The faster the vibrations or the frequency, the higher the sound.
How high or low a sound is called the pitch.
Engage: Display focus question: What is sound? Brainstorm and discuss with students a list of all the different sounds they have heard.
Workbook p. 141A pre-assessment. Briefly play some music from an electronic device that has a speaker. Turn it off and place a paper plate on a speaker. Then pour some rice or salt on the plate. Play the music again. Let students see how the sound causes the rice or salt to vibrate and form a ripple wave pattern.
Explore: Teacher can facilitate Quick Activity from SF TE p. 454 with a pencil, string, and a straw Or See handout: Exploring Sound and give students different sizes of rubber bands, and plastic cups to explore sound. Students reflect on their explorations in their journals/notebooks.
Explain: Teacher and students read/discuss What is Sound? Pp top of p. using illustration of guitar and wavelengths with captions, too.
Also use Scott Foresman online resources: Gr. 5 Take it to the Net: Physical Science Game: Sound Energy; Watts Notes: Sound. Set up a class and get access to Discovery Video # 26.
Extend pitch concept with the lab: Can you Make Different Sounds with a Ruler? (see handout.)
With either strategy have students take notes of the key concepts.
Department of Science

17. Sound makes the air vibrate.
For sound to be heard, sound vibrations must have air or some other kind of matter to travel through.
You cannot hear sound in outer space because there is no air or other matter to carry sound vibrations.
How do you think astronauts are able to talk each other in outer space?
Department of Science

18. Sound can also be blocked.
THINK:
Why do some people wear ear coverings?
Department of Science

19. Cover your ears!
Some people who work near loud machines wear ear coverings.
The coverings block some of the sound vibrations from reaching the ears.
The ear coverings protect your ears from the noise.
Have you ever covered your ears? Why?
Department of Science

20. How do we make sounds?
We use our vocal cords to make sounds in our throat.
When we speak, our vocal cords vibrate.
Place your hand on your throat when you talk, and you can feel the vocal cords vibrate.
Department of Science

21. Loudness or Volume Volume is the loudness or the softness of a sound.
Loud sounds use a lot of energy.
Soft sounds use a little energy.
Example: The harder a drum is hit, the more the drum will vibrate . The more an object vibrates, the louder the sound it makes.
Department of Science

22. Pitch Pitch is the highest or lowest sound an object makes.
Objects that vibrate slowly, make a low pitch. Example-drum.
Objects that vibrate quickly, make a higher pitch. Example-recorder
Department of Science

23. Move with the Music
Music is a combination or sequences of sounds that people enjoy listening to.
Musical instruments make different sounds by plucking the strings.
To Do: Given three rubber bands, rulers and/or boxes make three instruments that have increasing/decreasing pitch.
What did you learn as you played and listened to the instruments you made?
The shorter the string, the quicker it vibrates producing a high sound.
The longer the string, the slower it vibrates producing a low sound.
Play the video Move with the Music to see materials that can be made into a musical instrument.
Department of Science

24. (Click on or copy and paste links to access websites)
Resources
(Click on or copy and paste links to access websites)
Sound Fundamental
Sound (glossary)
Pitch (glossary)
Sound Waves Exploration use with cup telephone activity
How does sound get from the object that is making the sound to our ears so that we can hear it?
How Sounds are Different? (intro to volume and pitch)
Volume
Sound: A Review
Pitch Switcher
Pitch Exploration
Department of Science