Discovery Sceince Step 1: Materials – Properties and Characteristics of Materials
Sound Insulation
Objectives: Appreciate the importance of hearing
Explore how sound travels through materials
Identify materials that muffle sounds
Group materials according to their properties (ability to muffle sounds)
Skills: Fair testing, Estimating, Measuring, Investigating, Analysing
In this experiment, the children demonstrated the varying degrees of noise insulation by filling the polystyrene cup with the same quantity of different materials (fair test using cotton, crepe paper, bubble wrap, playdough, tin foil, tissue). While using the same sound source, the child with the beaker changed the contents of the cup. The sound source moved away from the child with the cup until he indicated he could no longer hear it. They then measured the distance at which the sound no longer transmitted to discover the playdough absorbed the most sound and the cottonwool and crepe paper absorbed the least.