Lauren

Hi, I'm Lauren. I'm an English focus and so science and math make me a little nervous... especially with the older grades so this is going to be interesting. My page is going to have ideas relating to a 5th grade science unit on SOUND.

5th Grade Science Webspiration

SOUND:

Standards: Core Science Curriculum Framework 5.2.a The sense organs perceive stimuli from the environment and send signals to the brain through the nervous system. Grade Level Expectations 5. Identify the major structures of the human eye, ear, nose, skin and tongue, and explain their functions.

Objective: Students will understand that we hear by using our ears. They will understand that our outer ear helps to focus the sound waves into our inner ear. They will also begin to conceptualize sound through other animals.

Initiation: Start with a concept development lesson. On the board write ‘what is sound?’ Have the students describe to you everything that they know about sound. Try to get them to say what they know about how we hear sound, how animals hear sound, where sound comes from, what does it look like, how does it travel? Any information they can give you, true or false, will help to develop conversation and future lessons.

Lesson Development: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Activity: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Play some different sounds from the computer. These sounds should have different frequencies, pitches, and volumes. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Have students make a paper funnel. Hold the small part up to your ear. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Play the same sounds again. Ask the students how the sounds were different. Explain that this funnel works just like the outer ear. It ‘funnels’ all the sound into our ear and catches more sound waves so that our inner ear doesn’t have to work as hard to hear. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Activity: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Post pictures on the Smart Board of different animal ears using PPT. Have the students guess what kind of animal the ear belongs to. You can also have a short discussion about which animals they think can hear the best. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Do the animals have anything about their ears that humans do not?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Assessment: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Then play Voice Thread to guide students’ thinking as they imagine that they are an animal. They are to choose an animal from the voice thread and write from the perspective of that animal. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Who are you? <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· What are your ears like? <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· Where are they located? <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· How well can you hear? <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">· What types of sounds do you hear? <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">This paragraph will help the teacher determine how well the students understand that we hear with our ears. It will also help to get the students thinking and analyzing the different types of ears so that for the next lesson he/she can begin teaching about the inner ear which is much more complicated.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Closure: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Closure can be a quick 321 assignment. This is when students write down 3 things the learned, 2 things they found interesting and 1 question they still have. This will help the teacher to decide where to go next with the unit.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Other Resources <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Animal Ears Guessing Game <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Voice Thread on Ears

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Lesson Plan <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Lesson Plan