Lesson video

Hello, everyone, and welcome to today's lesson.

My name is Mrs. Waller.

And today, we're going to be learning about sound.

This lesson is from the unit Introduction to Sound and it particularly focuses on us planning an investigation to consider what happens when we move further away from the source of the sound or even closer to the source of the sound.

So this lesson is called Distance from Sounds Plan.

Our learning outcome for today's lesson is I can plan to investigate how the volume of a sound depends on the distance from the sound source.

Now, I've already mentioned some of our keywords when I was telling you our learning outcome.

So here they all are in one place at the same time.

We have sound source, volume, distance, enquiry, and fair test.

So just take a moment to look down the list of keywords and think about whether you know these words, if you know the definitions of these words.

Don't worry if there's some that you don't know because all of these words will be covered in the lesson today.

And we have our keyword definitions here.

So you might want to take a quick look down, or you might want to wait and come back to this slide at the very end of the lesson and double check that you understand the meanings of all of the keywords that we have covered in the lesson today.

This lesson is in two parts, and the first part of the lesson, which we'll be moving on to straight away, we are going to be learning about sound sources.

Jacob is thinking about how different objects vibrate to make different sounds.

And Jacob is saying, "This morning, I have heard my alarm clock ring, the kettle boil, and the microwave beep." What sounds have you heard already this morning and what made them? Pause the video now, take some time to think, and share your ideas with somebody else in the room with you.

We know that sounds are made when objects vibrate.

So an object that vibrates to make a sound is called a sound source.

And this is the first of our keywords today.

Can you name these sound sources? So it's definitely something that I've seen before.

And we know that when that object vibrates, it makes quite a loud, quite a piercing rather annoying sound.

But do we know the name of the sound source? Yes, well done.

It's an electric drill.

Here's a another sound source.

Ooh, no, maybe this could be two sound sources.

What do you think? Well, the sound source could be the human.

So a sound source is anything that vibrates to make a sound.

And we know that we can make sounds.

We can make lots of different sounds, can't we? With our voice, with our hands, with different body parts.

What sounds can you make as a human? And the other sound source here in the image is the phone.

And these all happen when the phone is vibrating.

Now, where's the sound source in this photograph? Yes, so I would say that the main sound source in this image would be the train, making all sorts of different sounds, particularly as it moves over the train tracks and it vibrates.

But again, I think we could see the humans in the photograph and we could count those as sound sources too.

Did you spot anything else? Now, Jacob has been thinking about how sound sources actually make sounds.

And he's saying, "I think all sounds are inside of the sound source waiting to come out." So maybe the sounds are inside of a radio or a music player or a television and they're just waiting for you to press play or to press the On button for the sounds to come out.

What do you think? Do you agree with what Jacob is saying or do you have any different ideas? Well, we know that the sounds that we hear, actually, they're not waiting inside of the sound source to be released.

What's happening is the sounds are only made when the object vibrates.

So if the sounds were already in there waiting to come out, then that really wouldn't be something that was caused by vibrations.

And we know that when an object is completely still and it's not vibrating at all, then we can hear no sound at all.

So actually, we have to wait for the object to vibrate so that then the sounds can be created.

Let's move on to some checks for understanding.

So we've been talking a lot about sound sources, but what actually is a sound source? Would you agree with A, only musical instruments that produce a sound are sound sources? Or B, only people speaking to produce a sound are sound sources? Or would you say C, only objects that vibrate to produce a sound are sound sources? I'll give you five seconds.

And the answer is C.

Well done if you guessed C.

We know that other things create sounds, not just musical instruments and people.

Any object that vibrates can produce a sound.

Moving on now.

So here we have Jacob and Izzy and they're thinking about the volume of sounds from different sound sources.

So we know what sound sources are.

Do you feel confident in explaining to a partner what do we mean by the volume of sounds? Take a moment to have a think and share your ideas.

Okay, great.

So we've been talking about the volume of sound and the volume means how loud the sound is or how quiet the sound is.

So they've been thinking about this from different sound sources.

And Jacob says, "I think you have to be very close to a sound source to hear a sound." What do you think? Well, Izzy says, "I disagree because I heard the siren of an ambulance when it was far away." Oh, you've got a good point there, Izzy.

Can you think of any sounds that you've heard that still have quite a high volume, but you weren't standing right next to them to hear the sound? How about the sound made by Big Ben in London? Have you heard of that one? And I know that we can hear that sound from really quite a distance away from it.

So yeah, I think Izzy's correct.

You don't have to always be directly next to the sound source in order to hear the sound.

Scientists ask questions to find out if the volume of a sound depends on the distance from the sound source.

So the distance would be how far away from the sound source that you are.

The children plan some questions to investigate.

So we've got Jacob saying, "Do sounds get louder, quieter, or stay the same when you move away from a sound source?" And Izzy's question is, "Does the volume of sound change depending on where you are?" So they're very similar questions, aren't they? But Jacob is saying, "Do they get louder or quieter or do they stay the same?" And then Izzy's used that scientific word volume instead of louder or quieter or staying the same.

But essentially, they're both asking a very similar question.

Actually, you'll notice that Jacob has used the keywords sound source, but Izzy has just said, well, depending on where you are.

So we've got two really good questions here, and I wonder what they're going to do to go ahead and investigate.

Let's take another quick check for understanding.

True or false.

Scientists ask questions about how the volume of sounds can change.

Do you think that's something that a scientist would ask a question about? Do you think it's true, or do you think it's false? Yes, it's true.

And we've just been talking about some questions, haven't we, that we might investigate like a scientist.

So how can we justify that answer? Would we say that scientists learn more about how volume changes when things are near or far? Or would you say that scientists learn more about what people's favourite sounds are? And the answer is A.

Well actually, I think in B, scientists can learn more about what people's favourite sounds are.

But when we're actually going back to the question to learn more about the volume of sounds, then it's definitely going to be A, isn't it? When we're learning about how the volume can change when things are near or far.

Well done, everyone.

Moving on to our practise task now.

So what question would you ask to investigate if the volume of a sound changes depending on how far away you are? Now, what we're trying to do is we're trying to take some ideas from Jacob and some ideas from Izzy.

And if you possibly can, it's quite a tricky task, can you include all of these words in your question? So we're looking to include distance, volume, sound source, and sound in your scientific question.

So have a go at planning one out.

Maybe you could tick those words off.

Maybe you come up with a question that's almost there.

And then you might want to have a go at editing that question to see if you can include all four of those words.

Pause the video and have a go.

So let's take a look at what question you would ask.

And remember, we were trying if we possibly can to include those keywords in our enquiry question.

Jacob's had a go at this, so he said, "My question is, does the volume of a sound depend on the distance from the sound source?" Oh, well done, Jacob.

So we've got distance, yeah, tick.

And we've got volume, tick.

And we've got sound source, yes.

And we've got sound.

Fantastic.

Well done, Jacob.

So Jacob is just asking you to check, "Is your question similar or different from mine?" Well done, everybody.

We have now completed the first section of today's lesson.

Fantastic work.

We've written our enquiry question and now we're moving on to the second part where we're going to be planning to investigate the volume of sounds.

So we're gonna try and find answers, aren't we, to our question, and we're going to plan how we might do this.

Is everybody ready to move on? Off we go.

So Izzy and Jacob are still thinking about this.

They need to plan their investigation to find out how the volume of a sound depends on the distance from the sound source.

So they've got their enquiry question and now they're thinking about how they might move forwards to investigate and find answers.

Izzy is saying, "My teacher says that we need to choose the right type of enquiry, but I'm not sure what this means." Now, that's a really good point for Izzy to make because enquiry is another one of our keywords in the lesson today, but Izzy's not entirely sure what that means.

So pause the video and just take a moment to think, maybe share your ideas with a partner.

First of all, do we know what enquiry means? And second of all, do we know if there are different types of enquiries and which one might be the right type of enquiry for this investigation? So can you help? Pause the video and have a think about it.

Now, Jacob's got some really good ideas.

And Jacob is explaining that enquiry means to investigate something to find out more.

There are different ways of investigating.

So this means that there are different types of enquiry.

Fantastic.

That's really helpful, isn't it, from Jacob.

So we know that in some enquiries, we might be observing with our eyes and we might just be watching something change over an amount of time.

There are other types of enquiries where we might carry out our own research to find out answers to questions.

We might maybe look in books or go onto the internet or ask an expert.

There are other types of enquiries.

Do you know any others? Planning to carry out a fair test, did you get that one, is one type of enquiry.

And this helps us to understand how one thing depends on or affects something else.

So we're looking at relationships between two different things.

Does one thing depend on something else or does one thing affect something else? Now, Izzy is saying, "The volume of a sound must be compared in a fair way.

And this means that only one variable, and that's one thing, is changed and another variable or thing is measured.

And all the other things or all the other variables are kept the same." Now, have you heard about this before in a fair test investigation? We're going to change one variable, we're going to measure a variable, and we're going to keep all the other variables the same.

I wonder what these might be in our investigation about the volume of sounds.

So Jacob is agreeing with that and he's saying that in a fair test, the variable you can change can be counted or measured.

Now, I wonder what that means.

Izzy is saying, "Well, the variable that we will change each time is the distance we are from the sound source." Ah, I understand that now.

So in a fair test, the variable that we're changing can be counted or measured.

And then Izzy is saying, "Yes, that's true because the variable that we're changing is how far we are away from the sound source or the distance from the sound source." And let's double check that.

So can you count or measure the distance that you are? And actually we can 'cause we can be really, really close to the sound source and then we can move, let's say 50 centimetres or one metre away from the sound source.

Then we can move away again, let's say another metre away from the sound source.

And we can measure the distance in centimetres or metres.

So we know that actually we are changing something that can be counted or measured.

And that's one of the things that helps us to know that we're carrying out the right type of enquiry.

In this case, we're carrying out a fair test.

Let's just take a moment for a quick check for understanding.

How does a fair test enquiry help us? Is it A, it helps us to understand how one thing depends on or affects something else? Or is it B, it helps us to identify and name things? Or is it C, it helps us to carry out research using secondary sources of information? So there's lots of different types of enquiries there.

Which one would you say relates to the fair test enquiry? And the answer is A.

Well done if you chose that one.

Moving on to more information from Jacob and Izzy.

Now, they've got their enquiry questions.

Do you remember when they both had slightly different questions? I think one of them mentioned the word distance.

One of them may have mentioned the word sound source.

They may have mentioned the word volume.

So I think they're going to put their heads together now and come up with one that they're really happy with.

And do you remember the one that Jacob came up with in the first practise task and it had all of those keywords in it? So they're gonna go ahead with this one.

Does the volume of a sound depend on the distance from the sound source? Great question, guys.

So they've got to the point now where they decide to write a plan for what they will do and what they will need to carry out a fair test investigation.

So they moved on to the next part of the planning phase.

Do you have any ideas? Pause the video and take a moment to think about it.

So they've got some ideas here.

I wonder if they're similar or different to yours.

And Jacob is saying, "Well, we're going to need a sound sauce to make a constant sound." So something maybe that's a loud sound, continuous sound rather than something that vibrates to make a sound and then stops, and then vibrates to make a sound and then stops.

Why do you think it needs to be a constant sound? Take a moment, have a think about it.

Yes, that's right.

It needs to be a constant sound because if they're measuring the volume of the sound, they might be measuring it when it stopped vibrating.

So that wouldn't be an accurate reading of its volume.

So something that was continuously making a sound, they could keep making those regular measurements.

Jacob's also saying, "We can measure the volume of the sound as we move further and further away from the sound source and we can see if it changes." So yes, that was our idea, wasn't it? So we can start really close to the sound source, we can measure how loud it is, and then we can move a distance away and measure how loud the sound is again.

And then move a distance away.

Yes, and then keep measuring and then we'll find out whether it just stays the same volume or whether it gets any louder the further away we move, or whether it gets any quieter the further away that we move.

So great ideas from Jacob.

Let's take a minute to think about what could they use as their sound source.

So remember, something that makes quite a loud sound and something that makes a constant sound.

Next question is how could they measure the volume of the sound? Wow, that's a tough one, isn't it? So is there a piece of equipment that tells us how loud or how quiet a sound is? Can you think of something maybe that you've used before or what you might use to measure the volume of sound in this investigation? Jacob and Izzy decide to use a data logger with a sound sensor to record the volume of sound made by a phone alarm.

Oh, brilliant idea.

So the sound sensor will measure how loud the sound is and the data logger will record that information.

And what they're going to use for their constant sound is a phone alarm, but it can't be one that goes beep, beep, beep, beep.

It needs to be a long constant sound, doesn't it? So great ideas.

Did you have any different ideas? Jacob is saying that, "First, we'll measure the volume of the sound when we are right next to the sound source." Brilliant.

Their plan is really coming together now, isn't it? "And then we will move one metre," brilliant idea, Jacob, "Away from the sound source and we will measure the volume of the sound again." Great idea.

And then what they'll do is they'll keep moving and they'll measure from one metre and they'll measure the volume of sound each time.

Yeah, that's a great idea.

I really like this plan and it's really coming together now.

What do you think of their plan? And do you have other ideas? Pause the video and share your ideas.

Before we move on to the final part of the lesson, let's do a quick check for our understanding.

What can you use to record the volume of a sound? Is it A, a remote control? Is it B, a data logger with a sound sensor? Or is it C, earplugs? Yes, well done if you got this one right.

A remote control does increase or decrease the volume maybe of your television, but it doesn't measure or record the volume of the sound.

And I think earplugs definitely help us to block out the sound.

But again, it doesn't measure or record the volume of the sound, but we know that a data logger with a sound sensor is the right equipment that we would need for that job.

Okay, scientists, so we're on to our final task now.

I'd like you to write your own plan to answer your enquiry question from task A.

Now, if you're not entirely happy with the question now we've moved on with the lesson, you might want to use Jacob and Izzy's question.

And here it is again just to remind you.

Does the volume of a sound depend on the distance from the sound source? So you're going to write your own plan and I'd really like you to include the following things.

So what equipment will you need? And don't forget to include the sound source that you'll use for this investigation.

And then we're thinking about what you will do and include in that, please, how you will measure the volume of the sound.

And then finally, when you're carrying out your investigation, I want you to think now at this planning stage, how will you record your results? So I don't want you to carry out the enquiry just yet.

This lesson today is all about getting it right at the planning stage.

So pause the video.

We've got lots of work to do here.

Now, let's take a look at some ideas for what your plan might look like.

So the first thing that we needed to think about was the equipment that you will need.

And some of the things that you might have thought about is something to make that constant sound.

It might a phone or a tablet, a musical instrument that you might be playing.

It could be a toy that makes a sound, maybe a crying baby doll toy or something like that.

But as long as you've got that sound source to make that constant sound, that's brilliant.

You're going to need a metre ruler or maybe even a trundle wheel or something, a tape measure, because you need to be measuring the distance away from the sound.

And also don't forget, you need something to measure and record the sound.

So it might be an app that you've downloaded onto a tablet that has a sound sensor on it, or it might be a data logger that you have in school.

So not lots of equipment, but we have to think quite carefully about the equipment that we would need to carry this out successfully.

Now, we need to think about our method, so what we will actually do when we carry out the investigation.

So Jacob and Izzy have said number one, we will start the alarm on my phone or tablet.

So we need the sound source to be vibrating to produce the sound.

Number two, we're going to use the data logger to record the volume of sound immediately next to the sound source.

So that would be at zero centimetres or zero metres.

And then number three, we're going to use the metre ruler to measure one metre away from the sound source.

And we're going to record the volume of sound again using our data logger.

And then number four, we're going to keep doing that, so keep recording the volume of sound as we move one metre away from the sound source each time.

That's a really useful plan step by step.

I know exactly what I would need to do if I was going to follow Izzy and Jacob's plan.

Let's move on to our final thing that we need to be thinking about as part of our plan.

So how you will record your results, and I think Jacob and Izzy have come up with a great idea to record their results in a table.

And they've even had a go at thinking about what their table might look like.

Their table has got two columns in it and they're going to record the distance from the sound source.

So they're going to start right next to the sound source at zero metres and then move one metre away, two metres away, three metres away.

I wonder how far they'll be able to move away from their sound source.

So I think you also need to think about where you might carry out this investigation, in a place where there's plenty of space to move away.

And you can see here in the second column of their table, they're going to be recording how loud or how quiet the sound is.

Remember that's going to be recording the volume of sound.

Now, they've written in brackets here dB.

So do you know what the dB unit stands for when we're measuring the volume of sound? Tell a partner if you know what that means.

Do you have some ideas? Yes, so we measure the volume of sound in the unit of measurement called decibels.

So we're going to be measuring the volume of sound in decibels each time depending on how far away we are from the sound source.

This sounds like a really exciting fair test investigation.

I'll be looking forward to seeing how this one goes in another lesson.

Before we finish, let's take a moment to have a look at a summary of all of our learning today.

We know that a sound source is an object that vibrates to produce a sound.

We know that scientists ask questions about how the volume of a sound depends on the distance from the sound source.

That's so true, isn't it? Because we've asked our own question and we're going to be working just like scientists.

We've also learned that we've chosen the right type of investigation.

We've chosen a fair test investigation because it helps us to understand how one thing depends on or affects something else.

And finally, we've learned that the volume of a sound can be recorded using a data logger with a sound sensor, and we've got that included in our plan.

So fantastic work, everybody.

I'm really looking forward to working with you again, and hopefully we can carry out this fair test investigation.

See you again.

Bye.