Travelling vibrations
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can explain how vibrations are passed to and through the air, to allow sounds to be heard.
Key learning points
- A vibrating object causes nearby air particles to vibrate too.
- Air particles are knocked forwards but then spread backwards when the object moves back.
- Vibrating air particles knock into their neighbours and set them vibrating too, in the same way.
- The pattern of vibrating particles creates a sound wave. Sound does not involve air particles travelling.
- Scientific models often only accurately reflect some aspects of what they represent.
Keywords
Particle - What solids, liquids and gases are made up from.
Vibrate - To regularly and repeatedly move back and forth.
Scientific model - Any way of accurately representing, picturing or imagining a scientific idea.
Wave - A disturbance that travels, like a ripple on water.
Common misconception
Pupils can think that sound is a material substance, or involves particles of some kind (e.g. of air, or 'of sound') travelling or being blown out from a source.
Spend time exploring and modelling how vibrating objects set particles vibrating, how vibrating particles will collide into neighbouring particles to set them vibrating too, and how patterns of vibrations produce the 'pulses' of a sound wave.
Teacher tip
An 'airzooka' or 'air vortex cannon' may provide an engaging and memorable way to demonstrate ideas in this lesson, if available. You could consider demonstrating a speaker. The model of sound in Task C could be built to demonstrate. There are excellent (additional) animations of sound waves online.
Equipment
Loudspeaker, signal generator/sound input, candle (to provide a demonstration of Task B – optional but will add engagement – check it works as anticipated first).
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Which of the following actions are vibrations?
Q2.Three things that can make sounds are: a human speaking, a flute and a violin. How many of these cause sounds by making something vibrate?
Q3.Match each of the following key terms with its definition.
the loudness of a sound
how high or low a note is
the size of a vibration (how far an object vibrates)
the number of vibrations per second
Q4.Which of the following changes will lower the pitch of the sound made by a drum?
Q5.If the of the vibration of an object increases, the pitch of the sound it makes also increases.
Q6.If the of a vibration of an object increases, this increases the volume of the sound it makes.
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Which of the following is a description of a wave?
Q2.A vibrating ruler makes a sound. Each time the ruler moves forwards, it pushes air particles forwards. What do these particles do to make the sound travel forwards across the room?
Q3.Sort the following statements into the correct order to describe what happens to particles that are near the left side of the string when a guitar string is plucked and starts vibrating.
Q4.Which of the following explains how a person can hear a sound?
Q5.A scientific model is about a part or behaviour of the real world.
Q6.In a simple model of a sound wave in air, air particles simply move back and forth. The wave travels because particles hit other particles.
Which of the following details does this model ignore?
To help you plan your 7 science lesson on: Travelling vibrations, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 7 science lesson on: Travelling vibrations, 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 3 science lessons from the Sound, light and vision unit, dive into the full secondary science curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.