A Science Class Designed Students to Understand Sound Energy in Lower Secondary School

Abstract

In order to deepen students' understanding of sound energy, we proposed a science class with an experiment using a teaching device of sound energy conversion, which was applied to the third grade students of a public lower secondary school. The teaching device that is turned on by a human voice was made from a piezoelectric element, a polyethylene cup, and two red LEDs. Before the class, students had the following false preconceptions: sound arises from electricity; sound is used in daily life; sound is not energy. Other students had come across the concept that sound is a kind of energy but did not fully comprehend it. During the course of the class. students were able to experience and understand the conversion of sound energy to electrical energy through the experiment using the teaching device. After the class, it was found through a questionnaire that students had gained better understanding that sound can be converted into other energy. Thus, it is suggested that the methodology used in our science class is useful to the understanding of sound energy.