Glass Shattering Storyline
This storyline investigates waves in the context of sound, specifically making connections between the crosscutting concept of energy transfers and transformations and how waves can impact their surroundings. Students grapple with a puzzling phenomenon that makes them ask, “How can your voice break a glass?”
The storyline begins with students drawing on their prior knowledge to model the causal story behind a boy who is attempting to shatter a glass by just using his voice. Students create a model of both the visible and invisible related to sound and its impact on its surroundings.
After developing an initial model of using one’s voice to break a glass, students start to explore the causal story behind how sound can impact its surroundings. Specifically, students make observations in which they see that vibrations cause sound and that the vibrations are created by an initial input of energy. They also look at the factors that affect different aspects of sound such as volume, pitch, or tone.
Students then explore how sound waves interact with different materials. Using echolocation as an example, they see how sound waves can be transmitted or reflected. Recognizing that the waves have to travel through a medium, students then build on this knowledge to think about waves at the particle level, building a model in which they see particles pushing against each other and creating a wave. Knowing this particle model, students turn their attention to how the length of instruments and tubes affect the pitch of a sound. They then connect pitch to wavelength.
The unit closes with several lessons in which students look at how waves transfer energy and they use this knowledge to create a final model to explain how a person might be able to shatter a glass using only their voice.
