Design a Soundproof Room
Students are presented with the following challenge: their new school is under construction and the architect accidentally put the music room next to the library. Students need to design a room that will absorb the most amount of sound so that the music does not disturb the library. Students use a box as a proxy for the room need to create a design that will decrease the sound that is coming from the outside of the box. To evaluate this challenge, students use a speaker within the box and a decibel meter outside the box to measure the effectiveness of their design.
Figure 1. A model soundproof box that uses a variety of materials, including Styrofoam and cotton.Copyright 2017 Emma Cipriani, Natalie Jackson, Geanna Schwaegerle, and La’Nise Gray; Collaborative RET: University of Dayton, Central State University and Wright State University in Ohio.
Students relate science to engineering as they examine properties of sound and apply this knowledge in order to design a soundproof room—a practical application that acoustical engineers may perform in their work. The students employ the engineering design process and are given a range of materials to choose from. As students design their soundproof rooms, they are also limited by several constraints that acoustical engineers may encounter; they must work with a finite number of materials and must stay within a budget.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Apply their knowledge of sound to a real-life situation.
- Evaluate materials for their design using quantitative data.
- Design a soundproof box using the engineering design process.