Gretchen Brinza
Email me!
  • Home
  • About Me
  • School
    • Louisville Middle School >
      • 2021-2022 >
        • 6th Grade: Contact Forces/Collisions!
        • 8th: Patterns in Space and Sky
        • 6th: Bath Bombs
        • 8th: Climate--The Warming Arctic
        • 8th: Hail, Rain & Snow
        • 6th: Cups
        • 8th: Tsunami-Natural Hazards
        • 6th: One-Way Mirror
        • 8th: Mt. Everest & Other Mtns
    • Sauganash >
      • 2020-2021 >
        • 5th Grade >
          • Data in Science
          • Human Impact (+/-)
          • The Dead Raccoon
          • Clean/Dirty Water
          • Opening Routines
        • 6th Grade >
          • Healing
          • A Changing Landscape
          • Keeping Things Hot or Cold!?!?!
          • One-Way Mirror
          • Dogs (Well and Unwell)!
          • Opening Routines
      • 2019-2020 >
        • 5th Grade >
          • The Sky
          • Dead Raccoon
          • All Things Water!
        • 6th Grade >
          • Sick Dog
          • Mt. Everest
          • Cups
    • Alcott >
      • 2018-2019 >
        • 5th Grade >
          • Patterns in the Sky
          • Roadkill--Dead Stuff
          • Down the Drain...
        • 6th Grade >
          • Chickens!
          • Sounds From a Distance
          • Sick Dogs
          • Spooky ________!
      • 2017-2018 >
        • 5th Grade >
          • The Mystery Sun
          • Roadkill
          • Clean/Dirty Water
        • 6th Grade >
          • Changing Populations
          • Smelling Lots of Stuff
          • Seeing and Light
      • 2016-2017 >
        • 6th Grade >
          • Can I Believe My Eyes?
          • How Can I Smell Things From a Distance?
          • Where Have All the Creatures Gone?
        • 5th Grade >
          • Unknown Chemicals' Identities?
          • Data
          • Water Transformations
          • The Raccoon Mystery
        • Technology Integration
      • 2015-2016 >
        • 5th Grade >
          • Opening Procedures
          • Chemical Tests
          • Earth's Systems Science
          • Data (Moon, Daylight, Temp., Constellations)
          • Ships in a Field
          • Patterns
        • 6th Grade >
          • Opening Procedures
          • World of Wonder Projects
          • Can I Believe My Eyes?
          • How Can I Smell From a Distance?
          • Where Have All the Creatures Gone?
    • STEM Magnet Academy >
      • A Glimpse Into My Classroom
      • Fifth Grade >
        • 5th Grade: 2013-2014 >
          • Environmental Engineering (Part II)
          • Aerospace Engineering
      • Fourth Grade >
        • 4th Grade: 2014-2015 >
          • Environmental Engineering
          • Waves and their Applications for Information Transfer
        • 4th Grade: 2013-2014 >
          • Environmental Engineering
          • Transportation Engineering
          • Biomedical Engineering
        • 4th Grade: 2012-2013 >
          • Environmental Engineering
          • Transportation Engineering
          • Biomedical Engineering
      • Third Grade >
        • 3rd Grade: 2014-2015 >
          • Forces and Interactions
        • 3rd Grade: 2013-2014 >
          • Electrical Engineering
          • Acoustical Engineering
          • Optical Engineering
        • 3rd Grade: 2012-2013 >
          • Acoustical Engineering
          • Electrical Engineering
          • Optical Engineering
      • Second Grade >
        • 2nd Grade: 2014-2015 >
          • Geotechnical Engineering
          • Matter and Its Interactions!
        • 2nd Grade: 2012-2013 >
          • Geotechnical Engineering
          • Ocean Engineering
          • Packaging Engineering
        • 2nd Grade: 2013-2014 >
          • Geotechnical Engineering
          • Civil Engineering
          • Ocean Engineering
      • First Grade >
        • 1st Grade: 2014-2015 >
          • Optical Engineering
          • Sound
          • Plants--Structures and Processes
        • 1st Grade: 2013-2014 >
          • Materials Engineering
          • Mechanical Engineering
          • Agricultural Engineering
        • 1st Grade: 2012-2013 >
          • Mechanical Engineering
          • Materials Engineering
          • Agricultural Engineering
      • Kindergarten >
        • Engineers do what?
        • Forces and Interactions!
        • Earth and Human Activity
        • K: 2013-2014 >
          • Introduction to Engineering
          • Force and Motion
          • Fabric
        • K: 2012-2013 >
          • Introduction to Engineering
          • All About Fabric
          • Built By Nature
        • Check it out! >
          • Exciting News
          • National Engineers Week
          • Donations
          • Chicago Events
  • PAEMST
  • Other
    • STEM FAIR 2019
    • STEM Fair 2018
    • Tech-Class
    • Engineering Week
    • G.D.W.O.F.
    • MSU Urban STEM >
      • Summer Work >
        • Ultimate STEM
        • ImagineIT >
          • Phase 1
          • Phase 2
          • Phase 3
        • Deep Play
        • Quickfires
        • Reflections >
          • Summer
        • Cosmos
      • Fall Work >
        • Deep Play Group
        • ImagineIT >
          • Phase 4
          • Phase 5
          • Phase 6
      • Spring Work >
        • Leadership
        • ImagineIT

Acoustical Engineering

Acoustical engineers are sound experts, solving problems related to sound.  Whether we want sound to be higher, lower, louder or softer, acoustical engineers work with a wide-range of materials to create and damp sound.  More importantly, they know ways which sound can be represented both visually and by touch.

Home

4.  Representing Real Bird Calls!

1/21/2013

 
Picture
How would you be able to count birds in the wild without being able to see them?With the help of a spectrogram identifying the bird's call, of course!

Applying all that they learned about sound, its properties, and the ways in which it can be represented, third graders created ways to visually represent actual bird calls.  Their work will be able to help anyone distinguish between the calls of cardinals, blue jays, common loons, mourning doves, and eastern wood-pewees while out in the wild!  

Listen to the actual bird calls!




3.  Representing sound tactilely and visually!

1/21/2013

 
Picture



Third graders first focused on representing sound tactilely, or through touch.  Using various materials, they created a beat that someone else could follow, adding a literary device that authors use to strengthen their writing:  onomatopoeia!  


Picture
After third graders learned and could distinguish between the various properties of sound (volume, pitch, and duration), they learned ways in which they could represent those properties visually.   

Spectrograms are visual representations of sound.  Third graders changed colors, shapes, and sizes of each of their spectrogram's components to show differences in sounds.  

They listened to the alarm and flight calls of the fictitious bird:  the Speckled Bubblebird!  

2.  Transforming and damping sound!

1/21/2013

 
Picture
Have you ever heard someone say, "Turn that down!  It's way too loud!" Or, "I wish I couldn't hear what was going on next door! They're so loud!"

Acoustical engineers can help solve just that!  Because sound is a form of kinetic energy and travels as vibrations, acoustical engineers must find ways to stop the vibrations.  Third graders designed their own instruments and then used various materials to damp the sound.  
Our classroom went from very LOUD to very quiet. 

Thank goodness!

1.  Meet Kwame!

1/21/2013

 
Picture
Kwame is an aspiring musician who is about to perform at Odwira, a huge musical festival in Ghana.  He's going to perform with his cousin, Kofi, who lives far away.  Both Kwame and Kofi want to perform their best, but Kwame can't read music in the same way as everyone else because he is blind.

Learning about how sound can change in many ways (pitch, volume, and duration), Kwame learns how sound can be represented by using different objects to represent different sounds.  If the representation he makes accurately represents the sounds he needs to perform at Odwira, then he and Kofi will perform well!

Kwame extends what he has learned to help identify different birds out in the wild with the help of a field biologist.  If each bird has a unique sound, they a unique spectrogram can be created to identify one bird from another.  Connecting what he has learned to actual work done by acoustical engineers, regardless of whether someone can see or not, sound can be represented in other ways!

Key Vocabulary:  acoustical engineer, sound, vibrations, energy, pitch, duration, volume, damp, spectrogram

    Mrs. Brinza

    I love what I do.  No ifs, ands, or buts about it.

    Useful Links

    Changing Sounds

    Sound and Hearing

    Seeing Sound Waves

    The Doppler Train

    Mrs. Brinza's Podcast







    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly