Research Question

Chapter 4. How Noisy Is Sound? Science Building on Science

by Wendy Gonsalves

The students tried to concentrate on their lesson while the lawnmower outside the classroom window roared. This noisy disturbance was not uncommon for them and their frustration grew into an investigation to answer their research question about noise. Through their excursion into the nature of sound, they learned firsthand about the nature of energy waves and the physics of sound. One of the many More Emphasis conditions achieved in this inquiry was selecting and adapting curriculum. “I adapted my science curriculum to incorporate the study of sound by stopping to acknowledge the noise outside the classroom as soon as it became disturbing to my students, and then turning their experience into a scientific study,” states teacher Wendy Gonsalves.