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3rd grade · Science · Unit 2 of 8

Sound

Vibrations, pitch, echoes and hearing

What your child practices

Vibrations and sound waves, pitch and volume, how sound travels through different materials but not through empty space, echoes and absorbing sound, how we hear, and how noise and sound devices affect people and animals.

Arizona Academic Standards learning standard: 3.P2U1.2; 3.P4U1.3 · sound waves, and how light and sound carry energy

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Sound is made by vibrations that travel as waves.
  2. Pitch is how high or low. Volume is how loud or soft.
  3. Sound travels through air, water and solids, but not empty space. An echo is sound bouncing back.

Example: Why do you see lightning before you hear thunder? Both happen at the same time. Light reaches you first because it is faster. Answer: light travels much faster than sound

Sound in Arizona

In the Arizona Academic Standards, this is unit 2 of 8 in 3rd grade Science, after Light and before Sense & Respond.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: Arizona Department of Education

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    A drum is hit softly, then hard. What changes?

    🥁
    • the speed of sound in air
    • the volume
    • the color
    • the pitch of every sound

  2. Question 2

    A bigger vibration makes a…

    🔊
    • louder sound
    • higher pitch only
    • silent sound
    • quieter sound

  3. Question 3

    An echo is…

    🏔️
    • a very loud sound
    • a type of light
    • sound that stops
    • sound that bounces off a surface and comes back

  4. Question 4

    Put the steps of hearing in order.

    • 👂sound waves enter your ear
    • 🥁your eardrum vibrates
    • 🦴tiny bones in your ear vibrate
    • 🧠a nerve sends a message to your brain

  5. Question 5

    Ship noise in the ocean can make it harder for whales to talk to each other. This is an effect of sound on…

    🐋
    • the environment
    • magnets
    • the weather
    • light

  6. Question 6

    What causes sound?

    🎸
    • magnets
    • vibrations
    • light
    • colors

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