DESCRIPTION:
The goal of this project was to create an activity that would engage children in the age range of 8 to 12 while teaching them about some scientific principle. To make it even more interesting the activity was expected to relate the actress Hedy Lamarr's life. The activity was expected to exist in two parts. The first part would involve interaction between students and a teacher in the classroom in which they would be introduced to the scientific principle behind the activity. Then they could go home and engage in the second part of the activity by acting on that scientific principle in a constructive manner. For a more detailed description of the problem itself please click on this link.
OUR PROJECT:
Our group consisting of Greg Nofi, Chris Anderson, Chris Tyler and myself chose to work with sound and the scientific principle of how it consists of waves. We decided to initially gain the childrens' attention by allowing them to play with common household objects which could be used in a variety of ways to create different sound effects. Then they would create those sounds in a structured environment using one of two different skits written with specific sound effects in mind. Once this was done, the teacher was expected to explain the principle of sound waves thus imparting some knowledge in the process. Using their knowledge of amplitude, frequency and pitch of waves the children would then complete their take home activity. This would involve them examining the drawing of a wave given to them and producing a sound that would match it broadly. For details involving what information would be given to the teachers and parents of the children, follow this link to my teammate's page.
Our project culminated in a presentation at the Meeting of the Minds in which we were able to describe the results of our project to interested people.
Pic: A young tester finds out what a screeching monkey sounds like!
WHAT I LEARNED:
This project really taught me how children think and what sorts of differences and similarities exist between the ways in which something is viewed by girls and boys. Although boys enjoyed making noises (the louder the better), the girls required some sort of structure to their play in order to enjoy it. Also, the girls preferred the fantasy elements of making sound effects compared to the boys' fascination with the variety of violent sounds that could be produced using common objects.
I also learned about how things have to be presented in order for them to be entertaining to an audience different from myself. Although wave theory was nothing new to me, it was always a challenge to restructure my vocabulary and thought process to explain it to the children at an appropriate level. In this way, I believe this project was probably the most effective one all semester, in recognizing one's audience and working the limitations or problems that may arise from it.
Author: Rohit Rao (rur@andrew.cmu.edu)