Musical Straws: Weekly Science Project Idea and Home Science Activity Spotlight

In this week's spotlight: a music-themed family science experiment and science fair project. With a set of ordinary drinking straws, you can create a group straw "oboes." Can you play them? Sure! By blowing air through them, similar to the way you play a reed instrument, you can produce musical notes. At the end of the activity, you should have a set of straws, each of which will play a different note on a musical scale. What is the secret to changing the note each one plays? In this music science experiment, your students will get a chance to explore (and hear) the physics behind the production of sound!

• Do-Re-Mi with Straws (full Science Buddies Project Idea)
• Sound Science: Do-Re-Mi with Straws (science activity at Scientific American)