1. Warm-up questions: Three musical instruments are pictured on a PowerPoint slide: an acoustic guitar, kick drum from a drum kit, and a flute. Students write in their science journals about two questions:

    Brian collects students’ ideas on a chart on a piece of butcher paper at the side of the classroom trying to get students to verbalize their knowledge of sound and music and to elaborate on their initial responses.

  2. Musical instrument demonstration: Student volunteers come to the center of the classroom and play a few sounds on a stand-up bass and a tri-tom drum set. Brian plays a couple of different wind instruments that are part of his personal collection.  This demonstration created a shared experience with music and helped to get students engaged in thinking about sound.
  3. Initial diagram models of sound from a musical instrument: Students work in small groups to create posters of a musical instrument showing how it makes sound, how the sound travels to a listener, and how people hear sounds. Brian goes to each table and talks with students. First he talks about the nature of the task itself to make sure that students understand what they are supposed to be doing with their posters. Then he visits each table and asks questions about what he sees on their posters or what he hears them talking about with their partner. His questions are directed towards eliciting students’ ideas about the nature of the sound itself and about the way that sound travels.
C:\Documents and Settings\Jessica Thompson\My Documents\My Pictures\Microsoft Clip Organizer\j0431548.pngDiscussion Questions: 1) Brian chose to spend 2 days eliciting students’ ideas about sound in 2 different ways. What are students’ initial understandings about sound from musical instruments? Complete RSST tool. 2) How does he uncover these ideas? What kinds of questions does he ask when students give incomplete responses or reveal an alternative conception? What does he do when he first enters a group/ exits a group?