Lesson Plan on Sound
(Loudness, Pitch and Quality)
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for QCP521,
Microteaching,
Submitted by: Tan Kang-Ling, Karen (LG02)
Moderator: A/P Chen Lai Keat
Date: 14 October 2005
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Lesson Plan
Topic Sound – Loudness, Pitch and Quality
Level Secondary 3 Express
Duration 2 periods (70 mins)
Learning Environment Classroom with IT resources, students sit in groups of 6 or 7 (6 groups)
At the end of lesson, students should be able to:
Specific Instructional
Objectives 1) List the characteristics of sound waves.
2) Explain how loudness relates to amplitude.
3) State the loudness of some sounds and the human threshold of loudness
4) Explain how pitch relates to frequency.
5) Explain how sound quality is determined by its waveform.
Students had been taught how to:
Prior Knowledge and 1) Describe the production of sound by vibrating sources.
Skills 2) State the use of cathode ray oscilloscope to produce a visual waveform of
sound waves.
3) Describe the longitudinal nature of sound waves in terms of compression
and rarefaction.
4) Deduce that a medium is required to transmit these waves.
5) Deduce that the speed of sound is different in air, liquid and solids.
6) State the approximate range of audible frequencies.
7) Describe a direct method for the determination of the speed of sound in air
and make the necessary calculation. ( = ƒ * )
1) PowerPoint Slides
Learning Aids and 2) Musical instruments (Hand-made drum, mini-percussions, hand-made
Resources: plastic guitar and Phonofiddle imitation) – 3 sets X 3.
3) Wav files
4) Worksheet
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Start the trigger activity by showing PowerPoint Slide 3 which asks the question
Trigger Activity “Why do a man and a woman sound differently?”
Continue to sound the differences in sound production between instruments, and
animals respectively.
Ask the students how they can recognize their friends’ and families’ voices and
how we are able to recognise familiar instrument/ animal sounds.
Ask the students what characterizes sound and how do we distinguish one sound
from another.
These are triggering questions which need not to be answered; their purpose is to
create students’ interest and motivate some thinking of the topic.
Exploratory Activity: (Musical Stations)
Lesson Development
Having created a certain amount of initial mindset, the students are set to explore
differing sets of handmade instruments. Each set of the musical stations attempts
to allow some hands-on activities for each of the characteristics of sound to be
conceptualised subsequently. Guiding questions in the worksheets helps students
to structure observations from real-life. (Concrete operational, Piaget) It also
enhances social interactive learning. After the hands-on, students’ observations
will be summarized on the white board by teacher to provide a guide into the next
part of the lesson to help student’s conceptualise their observations.
Concept Delivery
Continuing from the above hands-on activity, students then have their
observations linked to the physics concepts. The new concepts and terms are
introduced here. Students are then able to translate their initial understanding into
the proposed instructional objectives according to their zone of proximal
development (Vygostsky). Each concept is further developed using more sound
examples and linking to more real-life examples (human hearing and
instrumentals sound variation).
Student Participation
To help students to keep track of the learning, the worksheet allows students to
follow with some related notes-taking and exercises after each characteristic’s
delivery. This reinforces the students’ listening with some simple practices.
Wav files
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The use of sound is most important in this lesson as it allows immediate
comparison and association of each concept instead of requiring students to recall
from their experiences which may be different for each student. It makes the
lesson more interesting and interactive as teacher uses them as examples and asks
students for their immediate thought-processes.
The recapitualation of the lesson is done during this closure where the overview
Lesson Closure
concept map of the lesson is provided. Students are also given some time to reflect
on their area of interest for the concepts developed
depends on the amplitude of vibration
Loudness Soft Loud
depends on frequency
New Concepts or Terms Characteristics High
Pitch Low
of sound
depends on waveform
Quality
Clearer Mixed
or
Timbre
(1) Text books
References Pople Stephen, Complete Physics (Singapore Edition);
See Tho Weng Fong, (2000), Physics for ‘O’ level (2nd Ed.), Longman
(2) Internet Concepts:
[Link]
(3) Types of sound:
[Link]
(4) CRO waves:
[Link]
(5) Piano/Music demo - Pitch
[Link]
(6) Larynx explanation:
[Link]
Other internet resources
[Link]
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Lesson Details:
Time Activities Resources Rationale
Start of lesson
2 mins Computer/ Especially for schools that
Give one or two minutes for the class to settle CD-track 1/ practices the home room
down. Play some music. PowerPoint system.
Set up Power Point / IT resources Slide 1
Recapitulation
To recap specifically
2 mins Graphical representation of waves. White board/ waveform, amplitude and
Get students to indicate on the white board the PowerPoint frequency for later use in
descriptions of wave. Slide 2 lesson.
Trigger Activity
2 mins Show video clips on differential sound PowerPoint To stimulate the student’
production from various sources. Slide 3 attention for the lesson.
Specify Objectives
Tell the students that we are going to learn about Worksheet To prepare the mindset of
1 min the characteristics of sound for this lesson. (Distribution) the students.
Distribute worksheet and tell students that we
will attempt the questions on the worksheet
along the lesson.
Lesson Development
Musical To provide hands-on
Rotation of Musical Instrument Stations: instrument sets/ exploratory experiences
15 mins Each group will get a set of instruments and they PowerPoint and obtain some initial
are to play with the instruments and write down Slide 4/ observations of different
their observations. Worksheet sound productions.
Section A
Objective (1)- Lists the 3 characteristics of Sound: White board/ To use instruments to
15 mins Obtain student’s observations of the Musical Worksheet identify the characteristics
Instruments Stations. Refer to Worksheet. Section A of sound. To use inquiry
Write down some observations on white board. questions to draw answers
Introduce the related (new) terms to be used in from students. If any
the concept explanation. misconceptions, teacher
can note down and clear
the misconceptions during
the concept explanation.
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Objective (2 & 3)- Loudness: PowerPoint To define loudness in a
Relate loudness to amplitude. Slide 5-7/ measurable form and to list
Introduce loudness as a result of more energy Worksheet some common noise
transfer to the membrane, giving rise to larger Section B, levels.
10 mins
amplitude of vibration. Qn 1-4
State the unit of sound level is the decibel (dB).
Compare the range of sound loudness to the
human threshold of hearing (TOH).
* Optional: Optional portion may be
Introduce the intensity of sound (objective), used in extension to the
Energy loudness concept.
defined by Intensity
Time * Area
Explain that intensity is objective but loudness is
subjective, thus with age, our hearing fails and
our grandparents do not perceive the same
loudness as the younger ones.
Objective (4)- Pitch:
Relate pitch to frequency.
Allow students to compare given waveforms of PowerPoint Relate the science concept
different frequencies, same amplitudes and Slide 8-10/ to real life, musical tone
deduce that, the higher the frequency, the higher Worksheet and voice production.
10 mins the pitch. Relate to plastic guitar hands-on. Section B,
Ask students the ways in which a string Qn. 5-6
instrument can have its pitch varied by changing
the a) string’s tension, b) length of the string, c)
mass per unit length of the string. Relate to
Phonofiddle hands-on.
Relate to the example of the voice production by
our larynx for adults (man and woman). Link
our vocal box to wind instruments.
Objective (5)- Quality: PowerPoint Relate to student’s interest
8 mins Relate quality/ timbre to waveform. Slide 11-12/ in creating everyday
Demonstrate sound from mixed frequencies. Worksheet music.
(distorted; synthesizer waveforms) Section B, Qn.7
Closure
PowerPoint
Recap the lesson using the concept map. Slide 13/ To conclude concepts
5 mins Peer evaluation of understanding by attempting Worksheet taught and allow students
Qn. 5 (Based on Concept map). Section B, Qn. 8 time for some reflection.
Any extra time may be used to allow students to Worksheet
attempt Worksheet-Section C. Section C
Otherwise, give as homework.
-- End of Lesson --
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