Anita Vasto's Lesson: Question Think Aloud for Physics - Introduction to Sound Unit
Procedure: I introduced the unit by showing students a video called “The Sound of Vomit,” which discusses a researcher’s search for the most disgusting sound to the human ear. The video then proceeded to relate that research to investigations into crowd control using sound, the search for a way to transmit sounds in a straight line without the sound spreading to the sides, and how sound can do work on objects.
I had planned on demonstrating the think-aloud lesson, but the students were coming up with their own questions about sound from the video. We discussed their questions, some of which other students could answer using their schema, and some of which they could not answer at the time, but which they recorded for further study.
Examples of questions were: How fast does sound travel? Why does sound travel faster in a solid than in air? What is the loudest sound you can hear before your eardrums break? What is the softest sound you can hear? How do sound waves go around corners? How can police use sound canons to break up crowds and not be injured themselves? (My students noticed the police did not wear ear plugs) What does the term mach 1 mean? What is a sweet spot and how do you create one?
We then started reading the chapter on sound in the textbook, and I modeled questions from that text. Students also came up with more questions, such as how do hearing aids work? What causes sonic booms? How does Doppler effect work?
We then re-visited the questions from the video, and discussed those that they could now answer.
Even after reading the text, the answers to some questions were still not obvious, so I followed up with a two labs: one involving a slinky, and a second using a ripple tank so that students could see the behavior of waves. I asked them to relate what they saw with the slinky and water waves to the behavior of sound waves. Students discussed this in small groups, then as a larger group.
We finished each lab with the students creating additional questions they had over the labs and reading materials. Those questions were then used as class discussion points.
Reflection:
After these lessons, I realize that many times I am too quick to answer student questions- that I need to become better at asking them “Where do you think you can find the answer to that?” Too often I answer and it probably is not retained very well by the students.
This also reminded me that a good video clip or demonstration can really fire students up to ask questions. The video was 25 minutes and the students were coming up with such great discussion questions that it required nearly 2 class periods to finish watching the video.
The questions were occurring to students so rapidly at some points that it became necessary to tell students to write them down for further study and follow-up discussion, because we needed to be able to discuss some of their questions after other class activities, to make it possible for students to answer their own questions.
The activity probably would have been strengthened for the students if we had used the Question Tree and Sea activity along with our other discussions, so they would be more deliberate in formulating questions. It would also be good to give them question stem starters for some units where there is not as much intrinsic interest on the part of the students.
Overall however, I was very impressed with the level of questions the students were asking. The discussions were very lively and interesting, and I was very pleased with the retention of the material the students had on their lab reports and what I was hearing during their discussions.
Procedure: I introduced the unit by showing students a video called “The Sound of Vomit,” which discusses a researcher’s search for the most disgusting sound to the human ear. The video then proceeded to relate that research to investigations into crowd control using sound, the search for a way to transmit sounds in a straight line without the sound spreading to the sides, and how sound can do work on objects.
I had planned on demonstrating the think-aloud lesson, but the students were coming up with their own questions about sound from the video. We discussed their questions, some of which other students could answer using their schema, and some of which they could not answer at the time, but which they recorded for further study.
Examples of questions were: How fast does sound travel? Why does sound travel faster in a solid than in air? What is the loudest sound you can hear before your eardrums break? What is the softest sound you can hear? How do sound waves go around corners? How can police use sound canons to break up crowds and not be injured themselves? (My students noticed the police did not wear ear plugs) What does the term mach 1 mean? What is a sweet spot and how do you create one?
We then started reading the chapter on sound in the textbook, and I modeled questions from that text. Students also came up with more questions, such as how do hearing aids work? What causes sonic booms? How does Doppler effect work?
We then re-visited the questions from the video, and discussed those that they could now answer.
Even after reading the text, the answers to some questions were still not obvious, so I followed up with a two labs: one involving a slinky, and a second using a ripple tank so that students could see the behavior of waves. I asked them to relate what they saw with the slinky and water waves to the behavior of sound waves. Students discussed this in small groups, then as a larger group.
We finished each lab with the students creating additional questions they had over the labs and reading materials. Those questions were then used as class discussion points.
Reflection:
After these lessons, I realize that many times I am too quick to answer student questions- that I need to become better at asking them “Where do you think you can find the answer to that?” Too often I answer and it probably is not retained very well by the students.
This also reminded me that a good video clip or demonstration can really fire students up to ask questions. The video was 25 minutes and the students were coming up with such great discussion questions that it required nearly 2 class periods to finish watching the video.
The questions were occurring to students so rapidly at some points that it became necessary to tell students to write them down for further study and follow-up discussion, because we needed to be able to discuss some of their questions after other class activities, to make it possible for students to answer their own questions.
The activity probably would have been strengthened for the students if we had used the Question Tree and Sea activity along with our other discussions, so they would be more deliberate in formulating questions. It would also be good to give them question stem starters for some units where there is not as much intrinsic interest on the part of the students.
Overall however, I was very impressed with the level of questions the students were asking. The discussions were very lively and interesting, and I was very pleased with the retention of the material the students had on their lab reports and what I was hearing during their discussions.