Science Reasoning Center - Sound Waves
You have reached the Construction Zone. As of April 1, 2023 the redo of our Science Reasoning Center was elevated to our top priority. We should have a large amount of content ready by August 1, 2023. We release content once it is ready, allowing teachers to preview and to test our latest creations for potential adoption into their curriculum and unit planning. You can stop by periodically to view our progress. It will be like watching a skyscraper being built ... only more exciting. You can also keep abreast of our developments by a periodic visit to the
What's New at TPC? page.
The
Legacy version of the Science Reasoning Center can be found
here.
Learn more:
About the Science Reasoning Center.
The following activities are planned for our Grand Opening. Once construction is completed, we will include a link to the activity:
Intensity and the Decibel System
This activity describes the relationship between the intensity of a sound at a given distance from the source and the associated deciBel level. Information is presented in the form of two tables and a graph. Questions target a student's ability to recognize the qualitative and quantitative relationship between variables, to use the relationship to compare various sounds with different intensities or deciBel ratings or at different distances from the same source, and to extrapolate from a table or a graph to predict deciBel ratings or intensities for a given set of conditions.
Sound Loudness and the Sone Scale
This activity describes the relationship between sound intensity and the deciBel level, between the perceived loudness of a sound and its frequency and deciBel level, and the sone scale of loudness. Information is presented in the form of a table, a graph with several equal loudness curves and a figure representing the sone scale. Questions target a student's ability to identify and use the relationship between intensity and the deciBel rating, to read values from and to interpret a complex graph, to use data from two or more data presentations in order to compare two sounds, and to combine information from two or more data presentations in order to draw valid conclusions.
The Sound of Music
This activity uses two tables to compare and contrast the frequency, wavelength and speeds of the various harmonics produced by open- and closed-end resonance columns. The frequency composition of a clarinet and a flute are compared to one another. Questions target a student's ability to select information from a complex data table or a graph, to identify the relationship among the variables wavelength, frequency, speed and harmonic number, to use such relationships to make comparisons of the sounds produced by two different air columns, and to combine information in a table with information in a graph in order to identify appropriate conclusions.