I was drawn towards the music industry – acoustics’ much louder and more obviously ‘glamorous’ friend At school I had no idea what an acoustic consultant did. But I couldn’t resist the allure of the anechoic chamber at the University of Salford, so acoustics won in the end. I now […]
Why ‘Explore Acoustics’? The scientific background to acoustics is incredibly interesting. It is combination of physics and maths that really helps you understand the world through sound. Why did you study acoustics? I initially wanted to do something scientific like physics, but then I got into organising music festivals and […]
A bucket harp An aeolian harp is driven by wind, so this needs a very windy day and an exposed site to work. Named after the Greek god of the wind, these harps are usually made from a wooden box and strings stretched between two bridges. This activity uses a […]
These resources were developed to be used by science centre staff for school visits. They are interactive activities that look at sounds, hearing damage, the ear and noise. Many of the activities cover aspects of the key stage 3 science curriculum and could be used in the physics classroom. These […]
The listening devices on these pages are a great way of getting people to explore hearing. By playing with the ambient sound, they create a starting point for talking about sound and hearing. They’re especially useful for science shows and fairs where it’s really noisy and so other acoustic demos […]
Vegetables can make remarkable musical instruments. Students are challenged to make instruments and explore the science of sound. It gives students a chance to tackle a creative acoustic engineering problem of how to work with imperfect materials. It can also be the starting point for exploring how sound is made, resonance and analysis […]
We’re gradually collating together some of the great acoustics demonstrations we’ve used with schools and colleges, at science shows and fairs. We’ll also be gathering experiments that can be done by students at science clubs or as part of physics’ lessons. If you have suggestions for activities we should include, […]
How to break a glass with sound in this classic demonstration of resonance
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Science lesson starters Key Stage 3 & 4 These show Year 7 to 11 physics students different effects of sound and are designed to be used on an interactive whiteboard. There are also follow on work sheets for download, which give brief practical experiments for the science classroom. Using high-speed […]