Human hearing
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can describe how the human ear detects sound and explain why there are limits to human hearing.
Key learning points
- Human hearing involves the transmission of sound waves through different parts of the ear.
- Wave transmission to a new medium can be limited by the wave amplitude or the wave frequency.
- The range of human hearing is 20 Hz to 20 000 Hz. Frequencies above and below this are called ultrasound and infrasound.
- The highest frequency you can hear reduces with age as cells of the cochlea and auditory nerve become damaged over time.
Keywords
Transmit - Waves are transmitted when they pass across a boundary from one material (medium) into another.
Ear drum - The eardrum is a membrane within the ear that is caused to vibrate by incoming sound waves.
Cochlea - The cochlea is a spiral-shaped structure within the ear that creates electrical signals when set vibrating.
Infrasound - Sound waves of frequency below 20 Hz usually cannot be heard by humans, so are called infrasound.
Ultrasound - Sound waves of frequency above 20 000 Hz usually cannot be heard by humans, so are called ultrasound.
Common misconception
Sound waves somehow “are” the sounds you hear.
The sensation of hearing sound (what you hear) is a different thing to what a sound wave is (longitudinal oscillations of particles).
Teacher tip
Use a signal generator connected to a loudspeaker and oscilloscope to demo sound waves. You can also play sound of increasing frequency to determine the highest frequencies that students in your class can hear. There are videos online for this too.
Licence
except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Sound and ultrasound are which type of wave?
Q2.Match each property of sound to the correct feature of sound waves.
this is set by the amplitude of the sound wave
this is set by the frequency of the sound wave
this is set by the shape of the sound wave
Q3.Identify the true statements about the human ear.
Q4.Which of the following is not found within a human ear?
Q5.Which of these animals can't detect ultrasound?
Q6.Ultrasound waves always have a very ...
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Which options correctly describe what ultrasound is?
Q2.Longitudinal waves that are too low frequency for humans to hear are called waves.
Q3.Which is the correct range of frequencies that humans can hear?
Q4.Identify the false statement about wave transmission and human hearing.
Q5.Starting with the incoming sound, sort the stages of hearing into the correct order.
Q6.Which is the correct reason why the transmission of high frequency sound waves is limited?
To help you plan your 10 combined science lesson on: Human hearing, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 10 combined science lesson on: Human hearing, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom. Plus, you can set it as homework or revision for pupils and keep their learning on track by sharing an online pupil version of this lesson.
Explore more key stage 4 combined science lessons from the Measuring waves unit, dive into the full secondary combined science curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.