The Physics Teaching Podcast

Tag: sound

  • Ways to teach… Sound (ish)

    Ways to teach… Sound (ish)

    The marvellous David Cotton (@Newmanphysics) joins us to enthuse about teaching sound. We sailed down the river of KS3 Sound, but couldn’t help exploring up the sides of the valley to see what we could extract from David’s vast experience of teaching.

    Thank you so much wonderful physics teaching community for all the tips tricks and techniques that you use to make sound live for your students. It is clear that there are dozens of ways to engage them in this topic. You’ll find links to the myriad ideas discussed at the bottom of this page, but don’t forget to listen as well. David’s enthusiasm is more infectious than… than… Oh, if only there was a fitting simile for something infectious in the national consciousness.

    We tried to stick to KS3 but couldn’t resist a little journey into other levels too! Marvin and Milo will help you if you are a primary teacher; a discussion of beats is probably focused more on stretch and challenge at A-level. Who says the podcast doesn’t give you full value for money? Oh yes, free, and worth every penny.

    Have a great Easter break!

    Links

    Making beats with audacity

    1. Install audacity, it is free (and there are versions for Windows, Apple and Linux).
    2. Make tones with the Generate menu:
      1. Generate >> Tone… (Set to 400 Hz and Amplitude to 0.3*)
      2. Deselect the wave you made by clicking underneath it in the grey area
      3. Generate >> Tone… (Set to 401 Hz and Amplitude to 0.3)
    3. You can zoom in to see the waves with the magnifying glass (1)
    4. You can Play the tones individually using the Mute and Solo buttons (2)
    5. You can force them to left and right channels too if you want to try headphones (3)
    6. To mix them to a new track:
      1. CTRL+A to select both the tracks (they will go white)
      2. Tracks >> Mix and render to new track

    *if it is above 0.5 then the combined wave will be higher than the maximum of 1.0 and very very loud.

    Note the visual beat (moiré) in the pictures which is caused (we think) by the resolution of the monitor on which this screen grab was taken.

    Join in!

    Please share ideas or successes – or indeed questions by messaging us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/physicstp.bsky.social .  You can also message us via our website contact form on every page of the web site at  the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, or email using the address given in the podcast (if we remember). We are moving away from X but can be found there as @physicstp.

    Music

    The music is used under the Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License

  • The International Year of Sound (Good Vibrations)

    The International Year of Sound (Good Vibrations)

    Summary

    Keeta Jones from the Acoustical Society of America joins us to talk about the International Year of sound.

    Content

    Keeta tells us about the way that the ASA are supporting the Year of Sound with a resource pack for teachers and a competition for kids. She also describes the myriad of places that acousticians are found in the workplace.

    Thomas and Robin follow up by discussing the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and a recent experiment to explore the sound of the windpipe in an ancient mummy.

    Links

    Join in!

    Please share ideas or successes – or indeed questions by messaging us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/physicstp.bsky.social .  You can also message us via our website contact form on every page of the web site at  the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, or email using the address given in the podcast (if we remember). We are moving away from X but can be found there as @physicstp.

    Music

    The music is used under the Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License

  • Birdsong – Connecting Physics with the Real World

    Birdsong – Connecting Physics with the Real World

    Friend (now Hero, surely?) of the Podcast James de Winter talks birdsong and uses it as an example of how to connect physics with the real world in more imaginative ways.

    We all know how it goes, you teach newton 3, you talk about a rocket, you teach momentum you talk about trucks and cars colliding. Vectors? Aeroplanes… pressure? stilettos and snowshoes… friction? car tyres. It’s not that these examples don’t give context; they do! And mightily useful it is too, but James challenges us to find something a bit different. Go outside our comfort zone and bring in an unfamiliar example. James makes the case for birdsong when teaching frequency and he’ll be back in a couple of weeks to talk about an everyday object that is an almost limitless source of physics context that every child can relate to. Spoiler alert: there’s probably one rusting in your shed.

    James makes a great case. Variety in examples and contexts broadens the appeal of physics and students’ idea of the relevance of this wonderful subject. Physics is so ubiquitous that it is a bit odd that students leave school doubting its relevance. So follow James’ tips and advice and reverse engineer something new and different into your context. Cooling rate of a dead cow, anyone?

    S02E11 Timestamps

    • Physics in the News: 3D Display with a polystyrene bead @ 01:15
    • James de Winter @ 03:36
    • Ogden Trust @ 19:20
    • Finding an interesting context @ 20:45
    • Thomas has a cover lesson and uses Quidditch as the context with the expected result @ 24:14
    • Robin suggests ideas for friction @ 26:00
    • Thomas is pleased with the Monkey Hunter at Open Evening @ 28:00
    • Favourite Resources – The Nuffield Red Books @ 29:46

    Summary

    James has wanted to talk about birdsong for a while but surprises Thomas and Robin with what he actually does with it – he teaches graphs as part of a way to make the physics meet the real world. If you fancy a lesser spotted grebe in your lab, then James has lesson plans and resources available at http://www.physicsandbirdsong.com/ – just a beautiful set of resources. And if that has got you in the mood for some bucolic physics, how about www.naturephysics.co.uk for some convection with mushrooms, or bees that ‘see’ electric fields?

    James is a font of ideas and particularly likes perusing https://hypertextbook.com/facts/ for things he could use. Another of his hats is the Ogden Trust, and Robin reassures Thomas that getting involved is well worth it. Robin then helps Thomas with some real World ideas for contexts that will be more accessible for the students. Robin imagines a fruit machine that gives three words that someone has to use in the lesson (and Thomas duly obliged).

    Nuffield Red books:

    Nuffield Physics has loads of resources for download, but here are the two Thomas uses for A Level, they are based on the 1980s version of the course. (Selected purely because that is the A Level he first taught in 1993).

    Thomas also found his ancient TES Resources:

    Stories from Physics – Richard Brock

    1. Weird units and wonderful measures
    2. Forces and Motion

    Join in!

    Please share ideas or successes – or indeed questions by messaging us on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/physicstp.bsky.social .  You can also message us via our website contact form on every page of the web site at  the.physicsteachingpodcast.com, or email using the address given in the podcast (if we remember). We are moving away from X but can be found there as @physicstp.

    Music

    The music is used under the Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License