ABSTRACT
SOUND CAN BE an enjoyable, hands-on (and ‘ears-on’!) science topic to teach, particularly if you make the most of the extensive cross-curricular links with music.There are plenty of exciting and surprising illustrations of sound-related phenomena that can easily be set up in the primary classroom using everyday equipment. It is also possible to convert some of these into ‘fair test’ investigations to challenge children’s enquiry skills. Classroom management can be challenging – a whole-class sound workshop can be rather noisy so you may need to warn your neighbouring teachers – but there is also potential for listening as well. Simply sitting in silence for a minute or two and recording the ambient sounds in the environment can be a revealing (and peaceful!) activity, which links in well with the National Primary Strategy focus on speaking and listening (DfES 2003).
