Student Teaching Lesson Plan Template

(Indirect Instruction)

Subject: Central Focus:

Science Characteristics of Sound

Essential Standards/Common Core Objective (2): Date submitted: Date taught:

2. P.1.1 Illustrate how sound is produced by vibrating

objects and columns of air.

Daily Lesson Objective (1):

Performance: Students will be able to construct a straw flute independently and describe in a written summary how
that sound is produced and why the pitch changes when the straw end is longer or shorter.

Conditions: Independently

Criteria: Students will create an illustration that explains their understanding of how sound travels to create various
pitches. The students will use vocabulary taught throughout the lesson with the inclusion of such terms as pitch,
vibration, sound, high and low, rate- fast and slow and draw a picture of one of the three group activities. Their
illustrations will need to be labelled with vocabulary terms supplied in a word bank on their final assessment sheet.
Students will be encouraged to also include a written summary that summarizes their independent drawing.

21st Century Skills (1): Academic Language Demand (if Handbook applicable)

Critical thinking and problem solving: Illustrate: Students will be able to illustrate how sound travels by
vibration through various mediums to produce variable pitches.
Student inquiry leads to constructing
scientific understanding by • Content/ Academic Vocab:
conducting experiments, explaining Sound, vibration, pitch, air columns, waves, force and motion
their observations and sharing these
with others. Students will make • Discourse possibilities:
Teacher will provide students with a platform for guided questioning
inferences, analyze and evaluate their and classroom, student led discussions where observations and
own understanding through the inferences will be shared among students during explore, explain,
process of explorations on sound and elaborate stages of the lesson.

Communication and Collaboration:

Students work in small groups and are

dependent upon collaboration in
order to construct their
understanding of scientific principles
being demonstrated in the classroom.
Unfamiliarity with problem solving of
tasks, evaluating peer input for
effective reasoning and applying or
determining a hypothesis based on
collaborative efforts.

Prerequisite knowledge and skills Global Awareness (1):

needed (1) (for both student and
teacher): Students will develop an understanding of how sounds and vibrations are
important elements of life that offer an awareness to the environment we are
Students will have previously been in and how these scientific discoveries can improve the quality of life for
introduced to the concepts of force and individuals who may not experience these phenomena in the same manner.
motion, though they may be limited in
their understanding of the scientific
properties of sound. Students will be
familiar with how vibrations are felt
through various mediums (solid, liquid
and gas.) and recognize the differences
in sound pitch without explanation of
the vocabulary term.

The teacher will have thoroughly

researched and ensure that the
information aligns to state specific/
common core standards before
implementing the lesson. Teacher will
have also prepared lesson activities and
tested their proper function before the
lesson is taught.

Source of Lesson: Safety Considerations:

Students will be given explicit instructions concerning their safety around the
materials being used in the activities. The needle end used for the phonograph
activity will already be adhered to the cone prior to student use and this
station in particular will be monitored closely for responsible use. Strings and
metal coat hangers will also be pre-fitted and explicit instruction will be
modeled before use by students. Sound tube activity will also be modeled to
ensure all elements are used as they are intended to be.

Activity Description of Activities and Setting Time

1. Engage (3) Students will watch a short video documenting a stretch 10 minutes
of Route 66 in New Mexico that has had “rumble strips”
placed into the road that produces a musical rendition
 of “America the Beautiful.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6Nl53bCC78
Teacher will ask students:
Did any of you recognize that song?
How can rows of metal strips and a car create a sound
like that?
What do you think would happen if you drove slowly on
the road? How about fast? Would the sound change in
any way?
Describe what you think you would hear?

Teacher then introduces a straw flute that the students

will create independently in the final activity. The
teacher plays the instrument demonstrating two
distinctly different sounds. One high pitched and one
low pitched. Students will be asked to compare the
sounds they heard for group discussion.

2. Explore (3) Teacher assigns groups that will work in rotation to 20 minutes
three activity centers set up around the room. Students
will be given ample time at each station and take turns
trying the sound experiments independently or with a
group member.
Teacher says: “Let’s now take some of the questions
you all asked and see if we can use the sound
experiments around the room to better understand
how different objects can produce sound.”
Instructional materials will be supplied to each of the
three stations (including pictures) to ensure their
proper use.

1. Stereo Sound Tubes – Students will hold the

ends of the tube openings over their ears and a
partner will stand behind them tapping the
hose surface at different sections. They will try
to determine he location where their partner
tapped the hose.
(Materials include: two 3-foot lengths of pool/spa hose
tube, two pencils)
 • Try to guess which side of the tube your partner
is tapping the pencil.
• Why is it that you hear the tapping in one ear
before the other?
• Can you tell when your partner is tapping the
middle of the hose?

2. Secret Bells- Students will hold the ends of the

shoe strings close to their ears and gently swing
the hanger so it makes contact with a solid
object such as a desk and listen as the sound
vibrations transfer through solid objects to
produce sound.
(materials include – two wire coat hangers, two long
shoe laces 3-4 feet in length)
• Why do you think the sound is much louder
when you have your fingers up to your ears
than when they are not?
• How is the sound travelling to your ears and
why can’t others hear what you hear?

3. Groovy Sounds – Students will use a pencil to

spin a vinyl record and a partner will use a
paper cone with a thin needle fastened to the
tip of the cone and listen to the sound that is
produced from the ridges, bumps and bends
causing the needle to vibrate and transmit
sound.
(Materials used: vinyl record, pencil, thin needle, paper
and tape)
• How does a small needle carry sound from the
record surface?
• What is the purpose of the paper cone?
• How is this activity similar to the musical
highway video we watched?

Teacher observes and assists students at the individual

stations. Teacher asks the questions listed above as well
as providing guided questioning to extend their
thinking.
3. Explain (3) Teacher thanks students for following directions and 15 minutes
Tip: “The student will be able to …” working together during the activities and for
Rephrase the daily objective in transitioning well.
“student language” if needed. This Students will remain at the station they were currently
may just be repeated from above.
at and will share out their observations when called
upon. Students will be encouraged to share out in their
own words and call upon other students who wish to
add their input and observations. Teacher will ask what
the students discovered and what questions they still
have.
Moving one by one through the activities the teacher
will provide explanations for each of the activities using
scientific vocabulary as students continue to explain
their observations.

Teacher will read Sounds All Around by Wendy Pfeffer

and use the prompts below to emphasize key details
from the text.

Pg. 8- Have students model the illustration in the text

where a child places their hand over their throat to feel
the vibration of their voice.
Pg. 10- high and low sounds, provide students with a
definition of pitch.
Pg. 12- High squeaking sound- Ask students if this would
be a high or low pitch.
Pg. 17- provide explanation of volume, decibel
measurements

Follow up extension: Teacher provides further

explanation of high and low pitch and length of air
columns.
Teacher will model for students how a straw slide flute
produces different pitches when the length of the
column of air is changed. “Longer columns of air
produce a low pitch; shorter columns produce those
that are high.” Teacher will describe how the reed cut in
the straw tip vibrates to produce sound waves.
Teacher provides students with Plickers cards, instructs
them on how they work and the way they will use them
to take a quick quiz of four questions for assessment. All
questions are taken directly from the content of the
text and from teacher modelling using straw slide flute.

*If no text suitable for the lesson can be found, an

explanation is provided below.

“What you discovered today was that sound is actually

a form of energy that produces vibrations. When
vibrations are made, small particles of air are moved
and vibrate as well. Each of these activities used
different mediums or objects to transfer the sound to
our ears. They all produced high and low volumes
meaning they were loud or quieter, but they also
produced another attribute of sound, which is called
pitch. Pitch is the high or low sound we hear. The higher
the sound, like the one you heard when you spun the
record fast was caused by a higher rate or speed of the
vibrations created by the grooves on the vinyl record.
The lower pitch you heard when the record was
spinning slowly was because the vibrations were not as
fast.
One way that helps me to think about how sound
vibrations move air is by thinking about how when you
drop a rock into a pool of still water it creates waves
that move away from the object that was dropped.
Sound moves in the same way. The closer to the object
that produces a sound, the waves are stacked closer
together and rise higher, but the farther away they
move the farther apart they become, and the waves
become shorter. Just like how sound travels.”
4. Elaborate/Extend (3) Students will each make their own straw slide flute, 15 minutes
through guided modeling by the teacher. Each student
is given one regular plastic straw and a bendy straw.
The teacher will have already cut the reeds at the tips of
the regular straw for the students. The students will
slide the regular plastic straw into the bendy straw and
move the bendy straw back and forth to change the
pitch of their instrument.
This example provides an explanation as to how the
length of a column of air produces either a high or low
pitch.
5. Evaluate (Assessment methods) (3) 10 minutes
Tip: Identify your formative and Formative: Teacher will actively observe the inquiry
summative assessments. methods students use to infer and describe the various
activities they complete. Some students may share their
Tip: Identify methods as formal
understanding and misconceptions with the class, while
and/or informal.
others are more comfortable with smaller group
Tip: Try to have at least one formal settings. Teacher will facilitate discussions and
assessment per LP to collect data on encourage input from all students at some particular
student understanding interval of the lesson to check for growth and
understanding.
Tip: Always connect your assessments Summative: Students will take a Plickers quiz of four
to the Daily Objective questions. Students will work independently to create
an illustration that explains how sound travels to create
various pitches. Vocabulary terms will be recorded on
an anchor chart for scaffolding this assessment and
students will use these words to label their illustrations.
Students will also be encouraged to include a short
summary that describes their drawing.

Student(s) & Student/Small Group Student/Small Group

Modifications/Accommodations (2): For students in need of enrichment,
Students who need more teacher teacher will have them work to
1. Students with physical disabilities led direction and a more develop a new set of experiments
will be provided direct access to any specifically tailored learning that would also align with the days
and all materials to provide the best experience will accompany teacher lesson. If further inquiry or
opportunity for understanding and direction is required i might have
as he/she observes group activities.
will be provided direct assistance from these students work to produce
Student/students will then
different models of the same
the teacher to better navigate and complete each activity with experiments to improve their
work through the various activities. supervision. quality.

Differentiation: Differentiation:
2. ELL students will be given written
explanations and directions in their Students with sensitivity to loud Students in need of enrichment may
native language and if applicable noises or may become over be asked to research and create a
grouped with peers who will be helpful stimulated will be provided noise student led lesson that aligns with
for demonstrative purposes. cancelling headphones. These and elaborates on the criterium met
by this lesson.
students might also benefit from
having a set of activities that are
specifically tailored for low volumes
or use vibration to teach about
sound. Those with hearing loss will
also have access technology as well
as activities that produce vibrations
which can be felt externally.
Materials/Technology (1):
Smartboard, internet access, chart paper and markers, two wire hangers (or metal spoons) tied to shoe strings (3-4 feet
in length), two vinyl records, two pencils, a paper cone fitted with a thin needle at its point, tape, two sections of pool/
spa hose three feet in. length, two pencils, a box of 50 straws bendy and regular, scissors, final assessment template for
illustrations, Sounds All Around by Wendy Pfeffer. Plickers cards for each student.
Reflection on lesson: