Page 15 - FOUNDATIONS FOR LIFE; EXPLORING GOD’S UNIVERSE

REDUCING SOUNDS

Truth to Teach (Source)

Genesis 1:15 ‘The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to take care of
it.’

 God wants us to take care of our environment, including reducing noise pollution.

 Noise is produced as an irregular pattern of sound waves.

 Sounds are produced by vibrating objects and they travel through a variety of materials.

 Loudness of sound is measured in decibels.

 Devising experiments.

Way to Work (Means)

Equipment: marbles, tuning fork, water, wood, polystyrene, foam, newspaper, metal, etc

1. Review the previous lessons.

2. Give the children two minutes to list as many pleasant and unpleasant sounds as they
can.

3. Share some of these then read the above verse and talk about ‘noise pollution’.

4. Explain that we measure sound in decibels. Conversation produces about 50 decibels
whereas a space rocket would produce just less than 200 decibels.

5. When sounds are too loud we need to reduce them by using double glazed windows in our
homes, using sound-proof rooms for certain activities and turning down radios, etc.

6. Gather the children around a table on which are four marbles arranged in a line. Flick a
fifth marble so that it hits the end one in the line. The marbles should vibrate against
one another. The last marble will roll away.

A sound makes molecules (particles) in the air bump into one another. The molecules
first squash together and then expand again, passing their energy to the next molecule.
The vibrations passing from molecule to molecule are called sound waves.

7. Explain that sound travels through a variety of materials, eg water.

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