Exploring Sound Waves

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Date:

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🎯 WALT (We Are Learning To): Understand what sound waves are, how they travel, and identify their key properties in everyday life.

✅ Success Criteria — I can:

☐ Explain that sound is caused by vibrations ☐ Describe how sound travels through different materials ☐ Identify frequency and amplitude as properties of sound waves

💡 Dyslexia-friendly tip: Read each question aloud to yourself or a partner. You may also draw or label diagrams instead of writing full sentences where shown.

🔊 Part 1: What Are Sound Waves?

Read the passage below, then answer the questions.

Sound is a type of energy that travels as a wave. When an object vibrates — like a guitar string or a drum skin — it pushes and pulls the air particles around it. These particles bump into neighbouring particles, passing the energy along. This creates a sound wave. Sound needs a medium (like air, water, or a solid) to travel through. It cannot travel through empty space (a vacuum).

📌 Teacher Note: Draw or display a simple diagram here showing a vibrating tuning fork with compression and rarefaction zones spreading outward as a wave.

1. What causes a sound wave to be created?

2. Why can't sound travel through outer space?

3. Circle the correct answer. Sound waves are a type of:

Light

Energy

Liquid

Matter

4. Which materials can sound travel through? (Tick ALL that apply)

Air

Water

A vacuum (empty space)

Wood

Metal

📈 Part 2: Properties of Sound Waves

Sound waves have two key properties: frequency and amplitude.

🔵 Frequency is how many waves pass a point per second. It is measured in Hertz (Hz). High frequency = high-pitched sound (e.g. a whistle). Low frequency = low-pitched sound (e.g. a bass drum).

🔴 Amplitude is the height of the wave. A large amplitude = loud sound. A small amplitude = quiet sound.

📌 Teacher Note: Draw or display two wave diagrams side by side — one with high frequency (many waves close together) and one with large amplitude (tall waves) — and label each clearly.

5. Match each term to its correct description.

Frequency

Amplitude

High pitch

Loud sound

Large amplitude

Height of the wave

High frequency

Number of waves per second

6. A bird call has a high frequency. What does this tell you about its pitch?

7. Give ONE everyday example of a sound with: (a) high amplitude: _________________ (b) low amplitude: _________________

8. In the space below, sketch two sound waves — one showing a HIGH frequency and one showing a LOW frequency. Label each one.

🧪 Part 3: Exploring Sound — Activity & Reflection

Mini Experiment: Feel the Vibrations!
Place your fingertips gently on your throat and hum a low note, then a high note. Try speaking loudly, then softly.

9. What did you feel when you changed from a low note to a high note?

10. Describe ONE way sound waves are used in everyday life in Aotearoa New Zealand (e.g. in sport, music, technology, or nature).

11. 🌟 Extension: Dolphins use echolocation to navigate underwater. Using what you know about sound waves, explain how this might work. Include the words frequency, vibration, and medium in your answer.

🌈 Differentiation Strategies for Teachers:

🟢 Support: Provide a word bank (vibration, frequency, amplitude, medium, pitch, loud, quiet) for students to refer to. Allow oral responses recorded by a teacher aide. Use the diagram prompts as visual anchors.

🟡 Core: Students complete all questions independently using the passage and diagrams.

🔴 Extension: Q11 above + challenge students to design their own experiment testing how sound travels through different materials (e.g. a desk, water in a container, air). Ask them to write a prediction and method.