Building a Sound Booth

Problem: How do different materials affect the ability of sound to travel?

Building Materials:

 Poster board  Choose 3 of the following:

 Scissors o 50 jumbo cotton balls

 Ruler o 40 popsicle sticks

 Pencil o 20 paper towels

 Glue o 30 tissues

 Masking tape (approx. 34 cm) o 2 sheets of construction paper

Prediction: What three materials will you use to sound proof your box? Why did you pick those items?

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Building Instructions

1. Begin by making the outline of the box on the poster board as follows:

A box with only five sides will be cut from the poster board. The

lighter line represents the outline of the box with each side

having a length of 17 cm. The dashed line shows where to fold the

box and the four corner, white squares will be cut off and

discarded.

2. You only get ONE piece of poster board so be sure to measure twice and cut once.

3. Cut out the box and fold on the dashed lines.

4. Paste your materials ONLY on the inside of the box as specified in your prediction.
5. Fold the box so that it has all but one side closed.

6. Cut the tape into four pieces but cutting the tape as shown below.

17 cm 17 cm

34 cm

7. Place the tape on the outside of the box along the open edges to seal the box.

8. You will add your artwork from social studies to the outside of your sound booth but make sure your

group members names are on the artwork.

Testing Instructions:

1. One member of your group needs to download a decimeter app to their cell phone as well as the

screen record function turned on.

2. Open the decimeter app and begin screen recording. Place your phone inside your sound booth.

3. Play a small segment of a song.

4. Remove your phone and playback the screen recording. Record the highest decibel that was

recorded on your phone.

Group number ______________ Highest decibel reached on phone ________________

Data

As each group presents their sound booth, write down what materials were used and what was the

highest sound level reached on their decimeter.

Group Number Materials Used Sound Level (dB)

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Results:

How did your sound booth compare to others in the class? Did your sound booth work better than others

or worse than others? If there were sound booths that did better than yours, what did they use to

make them better?

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Conclusion

My prediction was _________________________________________ (correct or incorrect).

If your sound booth did not perform the best, then your prediction was incorrect .

What were the best materials to use in the sound booth and why? ____________________________

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