Musical Jars and the Science of Sound

A little about the science of sound:

Lower School students were asked to create their own water xylophones using glasses. Small vibrations are made when you hit the glass, this creates sound waves that travel through the water. More water means slower vibrations and a deeper tone. When you hit an empty glass, both the glass and the air inside it vibrate. You hear these vibrations as sound through the air.

They were then asked to experiment figuring out known songs and see if they could make up their own. Fun! From there, we expanded the experiment to see what would happen if you used different types of liquids in the glasses. Would it change the sound? If so, how?

Through this lesson, the students not only experimented with sound and pitches, but they also were able to review reading rhythm patterns in writing pieces of music, AND played their color-coded sound-producing “instrument.”

A message from Mrs. Ramos-Burgos, Music Teacher, “This made my day!! It makes my heart so happy!! Paxton did AWESOME! I love how he’s reading his music from his iPad.”