Designing Musical Art to Help See Sound
How do stringed instruments make sound?Copyright 2016 eyes355, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stringed_Instruments.jpg
Why do guitars create amazing sounds using just a few strings? In this activity, students explore how sound is created. After researching with classmates, students are then challenged to create a prototype guitar. Using paint on the strings of their guitar, students create vibrations by plucking on the strings. To visualize this, they engineer their very own sound wave art and create a visual representation of the sound they are hearing. Afterward, students measure their sound waves, and come to conclusions about what it means when sound waves get further apart.
Sound is used in many different types of engineering to solve various problems. There are engineers called audio engineers who specifically focus on how to make music sound good when creating records for artists. There are also acoustic engineers who help design buildings like theaters to carry or muffle sound as needed. Sound can also be important in fields like biomedical engineering when creating hearing aids or studying the ear.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Explain how sound is caused by vibrations.
- Summarize why sound is louder or quieter.
- Design their own instrument to produce sound.
- Create a visual representation of sound waves.