This is another one of those experiments I remember doing when I was a child. I spent hours wandering the house on a wet weekend playing my tissue box guitar trying different combinations and I’m pretty sure I managed to play Mary Had A Little Lamb at one point! Your students will really enjoy this lesson as it is something they can relate to and enables them to do their own investigations into sound.
A fun science experiment that teaches you about sound while you make and play with a crazy toy that makes chicken noises!
Here’s a great fun and easy sound experiment – your students will make a chicken call toy and learn about sound vibration while they act like chickens!
In this sound experiment your students are able to investigate how to muffle sound and the effect the absorption of sound waves has on the volume of sound.
If you thought the Reuben’s Tube was amazing, then you’ll love this: It’s a plasma speaker. It’s like a little bolt of lightning (actually an amplitude modulated arc) which is producing sound from an mp3 player. There’s no speaker – all the sound is coming from the arc!
This easy sound experiment requires nothing more than a simple button and a piece of string or strong cotton. Together, they can make a singing button that shows students how sound is made by vibration.
This experiment also demonstrates how potential energy can be converted to kinetic energy as the button spins. Should it be an energy experiment too? Comment and let me know your thoughts!
Sound is caused by vibrations. In this sound experiment you can feel the vibrations caused by talking, and all you need is a balloon!
Name that sound is more of a game than an experiment, but it is still a great way to investigate the qualities of sound that distinguish one sound from another. Suitable for very young students right through to early high school.
Inspired by a scene in The Big Bang Theory and reminiscent of Flubber, this experiment is another way to visualise sound and it’s kind of fun! It is a simple cornstarch and water mix placed on a speaker.
In this demonstration the boys from Mythbusters build a Reuben’s Tube – which uses gas flames to display sound waves. It is one of those great demonstrations we could never do at school anymore! Ideal for a projector or interactive whiteboard.
And here’s another one that shows how the Reuben’s Tube reacts to different pieces of music:
