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!

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!  

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!  

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!

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