Summary Use a slinky (or a toy "space phone") to model how sound vibrations move in a wave. It can also show how light waves move. Science content Biology: Sensing, Organ Systems (4, 5, 6) Chemistry: Atoms, Molecules (3-7) Physics: Light and Sound (1) Science competencies (+ questioning + manipulation + others that are in every activity) Evaluating: inferring (3 up) Lessons activity is in Hearing in animals Sound Sound activities outdoors Light and Sound Materials slinky, space phone, or other device with a long wire of tight coils flat floor space Procedure This models how sound travels by moving vibrations. Pairs of students stretch the slinky (or space phone) between them on the ground. At one end, quickly push the slinky to compress a few of the turns. The compression, if tight and fast enough, will move along the slinky. See how the vibrations move along as a wave, as one part of the slinky pushes the next part. This is how sound waves move: molecules bump the next molecules along, forming a wave of vibrations. These are called longitudinal waves, and is how sound moves through solids, liquids and gases. With the space phone the added cones mean that the sound of the coils vibrating are amplified, to make a strange, spacey sound. Make a transverse wave by flicking the slinky quickly sideways. The wave will move along the slinky. (This kind of wave is often easier for students to make.) Light waves move in a transverse wave. Look for the wave coming back along the slinky, which models an echo. An echo in a big room, or across a valley, is the sound waves bouncing back. When these vibrating molecules reach our ear, they make our ear drum vibrate which transfers the energy vibrations to our inner ear where they stimulate neurons. The nerve fires and sends a signal to our brain, that we perceive as sound. Grades taught Gr 1 Gr 2 Gr 3 Gr 4 Gr 5
