Lesson video

Hello, everybody! Welcome to your final lesson on sound with me, Ms. Roberts.

I am so impressed with all of your hard work so far during this topic so well done everybody.

Let's get on to our final lesson because it's our experiment; our favourite bit.

Star words, star words, star words! Well done.

My turn, your turn.

Taut.

Taut.

Taut means tight.

Taut means.

Well done.

Amplified.

Amplified.

Well done.

And vibrations.

Your turn.

Vibrations.

Your turn.

Well done.

We've learnt our star words, now we need to make all of our preparations ready for our experiment.

And then we're going to look at how we write up our experiment using a method.

So, today you are going to need some string, two paper or plastic cups, and some scissors.

There are some optional things if you don't have some of those.

If you don't have paper or plastic cups, you can just use a piece of paper and you can roll it up.

So if you don't have cups, then you can get two pieces of paper.

If you don't have scissors, you can use something to poke a hole through, but you must make sure you ask your grownup to help you with something sharp.

And also, if you want to, you can get some tape, to secure the string down with but it's not necessary, and I won't be using any tape.

Okay, pause the video, and go and get the resources you need now.

Okay, so let's go and have a look at our experiment.

Watch really carefully because afterwards we're going to be writing it up and then you can make your own version of a string telephone.

Let's take a look.

Hi, guys! Right, we are ready for our experiment of sound.

I'm going to put my glasses on so that I am being my professional scientist.

If you got a lab coat or something you want to put on to make yourself feel nice and scientific, then go and get them now.

So, the resources that you're going to need, I've already told you but let's just have a reminder.

I've got some scissors, I've got some string, and I've got two containers that are cylindrical.

So, I said in the video before that you could use paper cups, you could use plastic cups, you could also use a piece of paper and roll it up, so that it's a cylinder, and that also works.

I'm just showing that you can use something slightly different.

And I pulled this out of my recycling.

I'm going to show you what to do with it in a moment.

So, pause the video if you need to, and go and get your resources now.

So, I'm going to very carefully cut just because I need to shorten them so they look more like a paper or plastic cup.

Okay? It doesn't matter about the length, but I am going to make them the same length.

So, put those to the side.

Let's have a look.

So now, I've got two plastic cups and they've got a solid base.

Okay? So, what I'm now going to do is I'm going to take my scissors and I'm going to open them up nice and wide.

I need to be really careful because the scissors are sharp.

Please ask a grownup to help you with this section because you need to be really, really careful not to hurt yourself.

So, on the base of my plastic cup, I'm going to make a hole, and I'm going to do that with my scissors.

I want to do it right in the middle of the base.

Right.

Right in the middle of my base, I'm going to make a hole with my scissors.

So, I'm going to hold it really carefully with my hands.

You can do this with a pen or a pencil if you don't have scissors.

You could use a sharp knife if you've got a grownup that could help you, but don't do anything, in fact, I need to concentrate and look at it.

Hold on.

Safety first.

Okay, there we go.

I'm actually going to put my pen in through it so that it's nice and.

So that I know that I can get my string through.

And now you can see, I've got a hole in the end of my plastic cup.

Not too big, not too small because I need to be able to fit my string through it.

Okay? I'm going to do the same on the other cup.

I'm concentrating and looking at it, so that I don't hurt myself or do it wrong.

My plastics just come through a bit, just don't want it in the way.

Okay, there we go.

So, now I have two holes in the base of my plastic cups.

If you're following along with me, you can pause the video and do that yourself now.

If not, you can watch the whole video and then have a go.

So, now I need to take my string.

I'm going to thread it through the base of one of my cups and I'm going to put it through.

So, you can see the string is now on the inside.

Now, I'm going to pull that through and I'm going to tie a knot so that the knot lies on the inside.

I'm going to make one knot.

I'm actually going to do two because my holes in the base of my cup are quite big, and I don't want it to come through; I want it to be able to be pulled nice and taut.

Remember that word we've talked about.

Taut means? Tight.

Well done.

So I've got quite a big knot that you can see in the back of my string.

Sorry, on the end of my string not the back.

So, you can then see when I pull it down, it doesn't come through when I pull it.

Okay? If you pull it and it comes through, just do the same again, repeat the process and make a bigger knot so that it doesn't come through.

Okay? I'm now going to do the same on the other cup, with exactly the same thing with the string.

Going to thread it through the base.

My hole is not quite as big this side.

I can't reach it with my small hands.

Let's have a look.

You can see that it's come through but I can't quite grab it.

There we go.

So I'm going to repeat.

I'm going to tie a knot right on the end of my string.

It's going to be on the inside of the cup.

And I'm going to do a double knot so that it doesn't come through.

Okay, so now, you can see I've got my knot at the end of my string and while I pull it through to my cup and I pull it tight, I need to be able to pull it quite tight, it doesn't come through the cup.

So there we go! We've got two cups with string and knots on the inside of the cups.

If you're following along, pause the video and complete that now.

So now, our experiment is complete.

However, you need to make sure, one thing that's very important.

For this to work, you need to use this when the string is taut.

So, this is when the string is loose.

I'm holding it up because my background is nice and white.

So, this is loose.

If I talk down this now, you won't be able to hear anything from the other side.

So, I can't do it to myself like a telephone.

But, if I pull it taut, taut means tight, then the vibrations are able to travel down the string much more easily.

And so when I speak to it, I'm going to try it like this, I don't think my arms are long enough.

Pull it tight and when you speak down the end of it, then somebody will be able to hear you.

So, what you need to do, once you've made it, you need to go and find a friend or a family member.

You can speak down one end and they put the other end to their ear and see if they can hear you.

Then try the other way around, so that they speak into their end, and you listen using the other end.

Remember, if it's loose, it won't work because the vibrations won't be able to travel.

So what does it need to be? What does the string need to be? It needs to be.

Taut! Well done.

So pull it nice and tight.

Good luck team and enjoy and I hope this works and you can send secret messages down your secret string telephone.

Bye, Team.

Wow! Oh my goodness! What an amazing experiment.

I can't believe that you can hear the vibrations down the taut string, just by making it tight and connected to each of the cups! What an amazing experiment.

I wonder which family member or friend you're going to make that with and share that with so that you can hear your secret messages.

How exciting.

Okay, so let's have a look at our method and writing up a method.

Now what on Earth is a method? Do you know what a method is? Can you tell your screen what you know or an idea about methods? Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Some of you are a little bit sure, some of you aren't sure that you've written a method before and that's okay because that's what we're going to learn.

So, methods need to be step by step.

They need to be a list of instructions that are very clear so that anybody else who reads your method could recreate your experiment.

They need to be written concisely so that you're not writing a big story but you're writing just the steps that you need to follow in order to carry out the experiment.

So let's remind ourselves, they need to be a.

List, step by step.

They need to be.

Clear, well done.

And they need to be.

Concise.

Concise is like short so not writing a story, we're just writing the absolute necessary things for them to follow.

The first thing you need to write in a method is an equipment list.

So, two paper or plastic cups, scissors, and string.

I want you to pause the video and write out: Method, Equipment, and the list of things that you used when you made your experiment.

Well done.

Okay.

So now, that they know what they need to prepare, just like you did at the start of my lesson, we now need to tell our readers what they need to do in order to carry out the experiment.

So Step One: Now, I've got two versions on the screen here.

The first one says "First, using the end of the scissors, and an adult to help you, poke a hole in the end of the cup".

Or the other option is, "Make a hole in the cup".

Which one do you think is clearer? Can you tell your screen? Well done.

The first one is much clearer.

Because if I said make a hole in the cup, I might make it anywhere in the cup.

I wouldn't know where to make it.

But what I've done is said, first, I've used my adverb of time, I've used the end of the scissors to make a hole in the end of the cup, so the base.

And I've also reminded them to ask an adult to help because it's sharp so you want to be really, really careful.

That's my first step so that anybody else could also follow.

My second step says "Then, thread the string through the holes in each cup".

So that's exactly what I did.

I took my cup and I threaded my string through each of the holes.

Now, have a look at the word at the start of number two.

I've used the word.

Then.

Well done.

That's another adverbial of time.

It's an adverbial of.

Time.

Well done.

Because I'm instructing them what to do in a certain order, so I want to make it really clear.

Okay, the next one I'd like you to help me with.

Number three says, "Tie a knot in the string.

." But where did I tie a knot in the string? Did I tie it in the middle? Did I tie it just on the outside of the cup? Or did I tie it just on the inside of the cup? Have a think and I'd like you to write your third step out now, filling in the gap.

Well done.

Pause the video if you need more time though.

Tie a knot in the string inside the cup.

It might seem obvious to you, but somebody who's following the experiment needs to know exactly what to do and where to do it.

It's a bit like baking a cake.

If you say put all the ingredients in the bowl, and then put it in the oven, they might put the bowl in the oven and then it would melt or something might get damaged and it certainly wouldn't look like a cake, that's for sure.

So, you need to be clear, concise, and writing in a list for the step by step.

So you can see on the screen that step four, five, and six are blank.

You've watched my experiment and you've had a go yourself.

So, I'd now like you to finish your method for what you did to complete the experiment.

Pause the video and finish your method writing, now.

Well done, everybody.

I'm sure you had a really good go at that and have been excellent scientists thinking carefully about what to write.

If you'd like to show your work on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, you can tag @OakNational and #LearnwithOak and it'll be great to see lots of your work.

So, well done for your experiment today everybody.

I hope you enjoyed it.

Bye, everybody!.