Our science topic in Year 4 this half term is SOUND. We have been learning all about how sound is created and how it travels, via vibrating particles coming from vibrations starting at a sound source. The children have completed lots of practical tests and experiments to bring this concept to life and help them visualise the process. 

First, we used tuning forks and bowls of water to test what happened when we hit the tuning fork and placed it in the water. Once we established the tuning fork was vibrating and making ripples, the children tested whether there was a relationship between the size of the ripple and the strength at which you hit the tuning fork. We quickly established that the harder the hit, the bigger the vibrations and the bigger the ripple. This was linked to sound and the way that vibrations from a sound source impact how violent the nearby particles vibrate and carry the sound. 

In our next lesson, we used drums and rice to visualise the particles near to a sound source vibrating and carrying the sound. As we hit the drum skin, the rice bounced and vibrated, which would then vibrate against other particles, knocking other particles and so on until the vibrations were carried to someone’s ear. The children had a great time testing whether the strength of our hit on the drum impacted the volume and size of vibrations, though our classroom was very messy afterwards!!!