1. Beatrix Jones

2. How do hearing aids relay sounds to people? What are the parts of a hearing aid? Which type of hearing loss is the most common?

3. I chose the project because one of my best friends has a hearing aid. When we were assigned a project about sound and hearing, I thought it would be fascinating to find out more about my friends’ condition and how hearing aids help her. My goal is to find out how hearing aids relay sounds to people and how they are made.

4. I saw that hearing aids are made out of 4 main parts: A microphone picks up sounds and sends it to the amplifier. An amplifier makes sound louder and sends it to the receiver. The receiver/speaker turns sound back into electrical signals which are sent to the brain. A battery powers hearing aids. This is how hearing aids relay sound to people.

5. There are two ways people lose hearing. The first way is conductive hearing loss. Conductive hearing loss is when sound doesn’t move as it should through either the ear canal, the eardrum, or the three bones in your middle ear the malleus (or hammer), the incus (or anvil), and the stapes. It can be caused by ear wax, a punctured ear drum, fluid in the ear, or infection. The result is that people feel that their ears are plugged. This can be treated by surgery. It is temporary most of the time. About 10% of the 28,000,000 Americans who have hearing loss have conductive hearing loss.

7. I interviewed my friend Freya (age 10) who has hearing loss and has to wear a hearing aid. Q: When did you get your 1 st hearing aid? A: When I was 3 months old. Q: Did you like your hearing aid at first? A: No. I squirmed and tried to take them off. Q: Are there different types of hearing aids that your parent could chose for you? A: Yes, there are a couple other types.

8. Q: What do you like about hearing aids? A: I like that I can turn them off when I’m fed up with people talking to me. Q: Is there anything you don’t like about hearing aids? A: If I get an ear infection it hurts to wear it and gives me a headache. Q: Can you change the loudness? A: Yes Q: Can you change the pitch? A: No.

9. Q: Can you get them wet? A: With these new models, I can only get them wet for half an hour. Q: What type of hearing loss do you have? A: I don’t know.* *I think she has sensorineural hearing loss because my book said that hearing aids can help people with that kind of hearing loss.

11. I learned that the four main parts of the hearing aid are: 1. Microphone 2. Amplifier 3. Receiver/Speaker 4. Battery I also figured out that sensoreneural hearing loss is the most common.

12. Discovery Health “How The Hearing Aid Works”, http//www. http://health.howstuffworks.com/medicine/modern- technology/hearing-aid.htm Physics of Sound, Delta Education World Book Encyclopedia, Book H, Volume 9 The Sense of Hearing, Elaine Landau The New Book of Popular Science Freya Brandvik (my friend with a hearing aid)