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4th grade · Science · Unit 3 of 11

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.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: 4-PS3-2; 4-PS4-1 · sound as vibrations and waves that 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 through air, water or solids.
  2. Fast vibrations make a high pitch. Slow vibrations make a low pitch.
  3. Sound needs matter to travel through, so there is no sound in space.
  4. An echo is sound bouncing back. Bats use echoes to find food.

Example: A guitar string is tightened so it vibrates faster. What happens to its pitch? Faster vibrations make a higher pitch. Answer: it gets higher

Sound in New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 3 of 11 in 4th grade Science, after Light and before Adaptations & Habitats.

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: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

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 fire alarm uses a loud, high-pitched sound. Why?

    🚨
    • it is easy to notice and warns people of danger
    • it is quiet
    • it is pretty
    • it makes the fire go out

  2. Question 2

    Sound travels through a medium as a…

    🌊
    • magnet
    • wave
    • beam of light
    • cloud

  3. Question 3

    Noise barriers along highways help people by…

    🛣️
    • making cars faster
    • making the highway wider
    • reducing the sound of traffic
    • making the road shorter

  4. Question 4

    Why can't you hear sounds in outer space?

    🚀
    • sound travels too fast
    • there is no air for sound waves to travel through
    • space is too bright
    • space is too cold to hear

  5. Question 5

    Put the steps of hearing in order.

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

  6. Question 6

    Sound travels fastest through which of these?

    🚂
    • a steel rail
    • a vacuum
    • air

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