Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Waldorf Education: Seventh Grade Physics — Sound

In trying to decide what to cover for seventh grade Physics, I perused the Main Lesson Book (MLB) of a friend of mine, who used to be a Waldorf teacher. I also looked over Eugene Schwartz's site to see what he prescribes for the block. So much to cover...what to choose? I chose Sound, Light, and Heat.

I decided to start with Sound, using books from the library to find appropriate experiments. My goals were to cove : What is Sound? What is Silence? How does Sound Effect Us? What Actions Cause Sound? What Effects the Quality of Sound? How Does Sound Travel?

I also took the opportunity to teach the Boy how to write out the process of the experiment using Question (Hypothesis), Procedure, Observation, and Conclusion. A format that was used when I was a kid. It may be obsolete due to new teaching methods, but my point was to get him to follow a process and be able to get that on paper.

Below are some photos of the Boy's MLB and some photos of our sound experiments. 
 







We filled bottles with varying amounts of water, then tried to determine what pitch each one registered.




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