Lesson video

Going to learn all about how our ears and our brains interpret sound and what on earth sound actually is.

So let's get started.

In today's lesson, you are going to need a pencil or pen, a ruler and something to write on.

And then if you've got them, you could get some headphones or some earphones, or if you haven't got either of those things, you could get a hat or something to cover your ears.

But don't worry if you've not got any of those things, it's not necessary if you've not got them.

Okay.

Pause the video, and go and get the things you need now.

Okay.

So first things first, we need to do our star words and I've got Lenny the lion here.

Say hello to everybody Lenny.

If you're new to our year three science lessons, then Lenny always stays with me and he sits by my screen so that I can tell him my Yes? Uh huh.

Are we? Oh my goodness.

Lenny tells me that we are going to do a really fun experiment at the end of today's lesson.

And we're going to make something that we can listen to the sound.

So at the end of the lesson, keep your eyes peeled for very fun experiment.

So I'm going to put Lenny there cause I'm ready for my star words.

So star words, star words, star words.

Your turn.

Star words, star words, star words.

Okay, let's get started on our star words.

Our first one is, sound.

Your turn.

Make sure you're doing the actions as well because it makes it really stick in our mind.

So sound.

Your turn.

Well done.

Next one is my favourite one I think.

Vibrations.

Your turn.

Vibrations.

Really make sure your whole body is jiggling and moving because when things vibrate, I mean they're moving very quickly.

One, two, three vibrations.

Very good team.

Okay, next one.

Particles.

Your turn.

Now, particles are things that are in the air and they're so small you can't even see them.

So things like dust.

Dust is floating in the air but we can't see it because it's so small.

So we call it a particle.

Let's do that one more time.

Particles.

Your turn.

Well done.

The next one is ear.

Your turn.

Ear, your turn.

How many ears have we got team? We've got two ears.

Well done.

And we use our ears to hear sounds.

The next word is prevent.

The next word is prevent It means stop.

Prevent means.

Now you might think why on earth or what on earth has that got to do with sound? Well we'll find out later in the lesson.

We're going to need that word.

And the last word we're going to need is, now this is a funny word.

It looks like coach Leah.

But in fact we say cochlea and it's the something that's very, very small inside our ear.

And it's a curled like the shell of a snail.

So you know how a snail shell goes out in a, in a curve.

That's what our cochlear looks like.

And I'll show you a picture of that later.

Cause it's very important for interpreting sound and sending signals to our brains.

Okay, so now that we've done our star words, let's have a look at what moving particles and how that creates sound.

So let's read our comprehension together.

Let's get it out of the way so that we can get to our fun stuff later on.

So let's read together.

You need to read out loud with a big, loud and proud voice.

Let's read the title together.

How is sound created? If you hear a star word, you can put your hands on your head.

One, two, three.

Sound is simply vibrations that spread through the air.

When something makes a sound, it wobbles or vibrates.

This makes all particles touching it wobble and vibrate.

This push gets passed through the air.

Keep reading out loud.

Our ears are designed to sense these vibrations and tell our brain what kind of sound we are hearing.

Let's keep reading.

Really impressed with your star words team.

Following from the top.

I'm going to stop moving my mouse.

If we want to stop sound, we have to block the vibrations in the air with a solid object.

For example, a closing door to stop the sound on the other side of the door.

We could also use soft objects to reduce the sound like ear muffs or soft objects on walls.

So teams sometimes in a recording studio where musicians record sounds you, you can get some fancy material that you can put on the wall that's soft, but if you don't have fancy material, you can use something like egg boxes and egg boxes are made of soft material and because of their shape, they are very good at preventing and stopping the sound to reduce the noise.

Just top tip there.

Okay, let's see if you are reading carefully.

If you need to go and read that before answering my two questions to see if you were listening, then go back on the video and read that again.

Okay.

How is sound created? Sound is what that's spread through the air? Can you tell your screen? Well done if you had a go, if you're not sure.

Vibrations, well done.

Sound is vibrations that spread through the air, and let's see the second question is check your reading your comprehension.

When something makes a sound, what happens to the particles in the air? Do they stop moving? Do they wobble and vibrate or do they change size? Can you tell your screen what do the particles do? Well done.

They wobble and they vibrate, or I can see that I can't catch you guys out today.

You're reading so brilliantly during your science lesson.

I'm going to give you an awesome cheer because you guys are awesome.

Let's keep going.

Okay so let's have a think.

I've got two options here and I want you to decide which one would be louder.

We've just read about how, if you put a solid object in front of something, it then makes the sound.

Oh.

Could you hear what I was saying just then? because I think.

Wow.

So my hand is a solid object.

And if I put it in front of my mouth, it makes it harder to hear.

But if I have my hand away from my mouth, it's easier.

The reason that is is because it's a solid object and a solid object is preventing the sound waves from travelling.

So when I speak, that's creating sound, which is sending vibrations through the air.

And in this case, they're actually going into my microphone, which is recording.

And then they're coming out of your screen.

If I put my hand in front of my mouth, the vibrations can't pass through because my hand doesn't wobble and vibrate enough.

So they can't pass through, which is why it's harder to hear me like this than like this.

Cause now my vibrations are, are able to easily travel and vibrate through the air.

So if you have sound inside the classroom and you are inside the classroom, or if you have sound outside the classroom with the door closed, which one would be louder? So for instance, say the teacher talking inside your classroom or children talking outside the classroom with the door closed.

Which do you think would be louder? Can you tell your screen? well done.

That's a nice, easy one.

If somebody is inside the classroom with you and they're talking, it's going to be louder than somebody outside, but can you tell your screen why that is? Use the word solid in order to help you with your answer.

Tell your screen.

Mm hmm.

Well done, because a solid object prevents the sound from vibrating the air particles.

Okay, next one.

Sound without mouth covered or sound with mouth covered, which one is louder? Tell your screen.

Well done.

Sound without my mouth covered.

So if I cover it with this or if I cover it with Lenny, Lenny and I try and carry on talking, you can't hear me quite as well as if I'm talking like this because the vibrations can't get past him.

He's quite a soft object, but he's still quite solid.

He's more solid than an air particle that's for sure.

Okay.

And last one sound without your ears covered or sound with your ears covered.

Let's see.

You probably might know the answer to this one, but let's just double check.

I'm going to carry on talking and what I want you to do as I'm talking right now, I want you to take your hands and I want you to place them over your ears.

If you've got a hat or you've got headphones, make sure nothing's playing in your headphones, then you can put them on now.

And I'm carrying on talking and I want you to see, is it easier to hear me or am I quieter? Okay, take them off.

Well done.

Can you tell your screen, which was louder with your headphones or hands off your ears or your ears covered, which was louder? Well done.

And once again I want you to explain to your screen why that is.

Mm hmm.

Good job.

It's because there was a solid object covering your ears.

So the vibrations couldn't get into your ears.

So this time, instead of covering where the sound was coming from, you're covering your ears.

So the vibrations can't get into your ears as easily.

They can still get through a little bit unless they're really, really covered.

Okay.

Wow, you're doing really well.

I want you to write a conclusion now for what we've learned so far this lesson.

What happens when you block sound? When you block sound, I'd like you to then finish that sentence.

Can you write it out in your book? And then with the second sentence, I want you to explain why.

And that's what we've just been talking about.

This happens because.

Now we've got some words on the screen to help us, so let's read those through.

I'm not going to move my mouse cause otherwise that black bar is going to be in the way and that's not going to be helpful.

So let's read the words that you're going.

You might not all of them.

You might want to use in your explanation.

So quieter.

Your turn.

Louder, your turn.

Vibrate, your turn.

Sound, your turn.

Travel, your turn.

Well done.

So I want you to use my two sentence starters and complete those sentences in your work.

Now, off you go and pause the video.

Well done.

I hope you had a good go at that.

And I'm sure that you were very close.

Now I've written some answers.

It wouldn't need to be exactly word for word as mine that you need to have the general understanding of the following.

When you block sound, it will become quieter.

This happens because particles need to vibrate against each other in order for sound to travel.

So I'm going to just give you a second if you want to edit your answers now.

Pause the video if you need more time.

Okay.

So gosh, we're getting through this lesson so brilliantly.

Now that we've looked at how sound travels.

It travels by vibrations in the particles.

Now let's look at how we hear sound.

How on earth does our ear hear sound if it's vibrations? Well, I'm going to talk you through how we hear sound.

On the screen, you can see an image of a TV and then a very, very zoomed in image of the ear.

And then we call it a cross section.

So if you're peering inside the ear, that's what you'd see.

And I'm going to talk you through it as we go.

So what happens first is the TV would make a sound and those sounds would emit vibrations.

And those vibrations would be vibrating and or wobbling the particles through the air.

It wouldn't just go towards your ear.

It would go all the way around from the TV.

So no matter where you stood, you'd be able to hear it.

But those vibrating particles then travel.

They're vibrating the air.

And gradually, obviously it happens very, very quickly.

Not slowly like my hands are doing.

I'm just showing you.

It goes in towards your ear.

And as the waves hit your ear, they're funnelled in a bit like when you pour water into a funnel, it goes down into a very, very small little spot.

And then normally it goes into whatever you're funnelling into like a jar.

In this case, the air particles are funnelled into the ear canal.

Now what you can do now, if you're very, very careful, firstly, you need to have clean hands.

Secondly, you do not need to push your finger into your ear.

Just very, very gently.

Take your finger and just feel inside your ear.

Do not push it because it's very, very delicate and you don't want to hurt yourself.

But you can feel that there's, it's almost like a hole.

Now your finger is far too big to fit all the way down because it's very, very small.

It's a very, very delicate part of your body.

The bones in your ear are very tiny.

But this is the hole that goes into your ear.

So once the waves are vibrating, they vibrate and they, these vibrations then travel down your ear canal.

From the outer part of your ear, they go into the middle ear.

Now these black lines that I've drawn are the, is a representation of the waves going down into the ear and you can see they travel down all the way through and then they hit the eardrum.

So right inside your ear.

You can't feel it so please don't put your fingers in your ear and try and put your finger down because otherwise you'll really hurt yourself.

But inside your head connected to your ear is your eardrum.

Now your eardrum is a very, very small.

It almost looks like the lid of a drum, but it's really, really, really tiny.

And when the vibrations have gone into your ear, they then vibrate your eardrum.

They then vibrate your.

Well done.

Now the eardrum vibrates, and this is connected to some very, very small bones, three of your smallest bones in your body.

These are vibrated.

And these connect to the cochlea.

Can you see on the screen? The very curly thing that I said looks like this shell of a snail.

That's the cochlea.

And that's what then vibrates and turns the, sends the signals to the brain.

So all of those vibrations end up with a cochlea, which then sends a signal from your ear into your brain.

And the brain says, oh, I can hear sound.

And this is what it sounds like.

So that's where, when I was listening to my music before, my brain had those vibrations sent to it via a message from the cochlea.

Isn't that amazing team? I love science.

It's just incredible.

Okay so now let's see if you were listening to my short description about how we hear sound.

On the screen is that diagram of the ear again.

And I want you to see if you can match up the parts of the ear to the letters and the arrows.

So part A, B, C, D, and E, which one is which? I want you to write them down on your notepad now, and then we'll see if you are right.

So pause the video and do that now.

Okay, let's see if you were right.

So the ear was A.

That's the outer bit.

The cochlea was C.

That was the curly bit in the middle.

The eardrum was D.

So that's the small part at the end of the ear canal.

Those three little bones on between connect the eardrum to the cochlea.

And then your outer ear was E.

So that's the, the hard bit on the outside of the ear, connecting into the inner ear.

Well done everyone.

I hope you got those right? If not, you can pause the video and make your edits now.

Okay so now we've learned all about how sound travels in vibrations.

We've learned how we hear about sound and now let's go and take a look at our experiment.

You will need to ask your grownups to help you if you want to do this.

So make sure you ask their permission first.

Let's go and take a look.

Hi everybody.

Okay, I am ready for the experiment.

So what I've got here is I've got a pen.

I've got a pencil, I've got some rubber band and I've got a large book.

I've got my favourite cookbook.

This is my favourite.

It doesn't matter about what type of pen or pencil it is.

And the book can be any large, strong hardback book.

So you don't want anything that's floppy and the elastic band I've got a nice thick one so it doesn't break.

You could also use, you could probably use a hair tie if you don't have an elastic band.

It won't work quite as well as an elastic band though.

But so go and get the resources you need if you want to join in with me.

Or you can watch me do it and then go and do it afterwards.

Okay, so with these two objects and my elastic band, I'm going to create some sound.

Now there are lots of objects we know that make sound.

So if I hit something, it's going to make a sound.

If I clap, it's going to make a sound.

If I, what have I got here? I've got a candle.

If I hit that candle, it's going to make a noise.

If I drop it, it's going to make a sound.

So we can make sound in lots and lots of different ways.

So the main thing that we've looked at though in today's lesson is sound is a vibration and an elastic band is a really good way to look at that vibration because you can see it vibrating.

And so when the elastic band vibrates, it's vibrating the particles in the air around it, which is why we hear it as sound, a not just a vision.

So it makes a sound because of the vibration.

But what we can do is we can make our own elastic band sort of, it's almost like an instrument.

So on a guitar, you have a big guitar.

This is quite big isn't it? So what I've done is I've stretched my elastic band around my book.

So it goes nice and tight.

Be careful to make sure it doesn't snap because mine is quite tight.

Maybe mine is going to snap.

That be quite exciting I suppose.

Now what I've done next is I've put my, I've got a large pencil.

It can be a pen or any sort of pencil.

And I put it underneath my elastic band.

So you can see it here.

In fact, there you go.

So it's underneath it.

Nice and tight.

And I'm putting it right as far towards the top as I can.

There we go.

Okay.

So then I've got to turn it towards me because it's easier.

So this acts as my anchor and then what I can do is I can use my other pen or pencil up my string like this.

So I don't hopefully need to hold my elastic band.

So you should be able to put it underneath the elastic band.

Hook it on.

And then you should be able to slide it up and down.

And then with your free hand, you can play your elastic band.

Have a listen.

Can you hear that? So it's going down in pitch as I move my pen down the elastic band.

I have to sometimes put that back.

I wonder what tunes you could play.

Do you think you could play happy birthday? It's quite difficult.

Okay, I hope you enjoyed that.

The vibrations of the elastic band vibrate the particles in the air around it.

And then we can hear it with our ears now that we know all about the ear and how we hear sound.

So I'd love to see some of your pictures on Twitter.

Please make sure you ask your grownup when you do the experiment and if you'd like to share them on Twitter.

Okay, let's go back and finish our lesson.

Wow.

I hope you enjoyed doing that experiment with me.

If you've got those resources, you could have a go yourself, but if you don't, then don't worry.

You've seen me do it.

And you've learned even more about how sound travels through vibrations and then into the ear.