Sixth Grade, Music Projects, Lessons, Activities (Page 2)

Musical Bottles

STEM Activity

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Have you ever blown across a bottle's top and made a pleasant, resonant sound? If so, have you wondered how that note is made exactly? The exact note you hear depends on the resonant frequency of the air in the bottle. Musical instruments like ocarinas operate based on a similar principle. In this science activity, you will use bottles to investigate how the volume of the air in the bottle affects the pitch of the note that it makes. Read more

Build an Electronic Piano with a Raspberry Pi

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Lights and music make a great combination! Getting sound and lights to complement each other just right helps set the mood for everything from DJ parties and concerts, to theater shows, the circus, and ballet performances. You can put together your own lights and music show using a Raspberry Pi. Check out the video to see what this simple, but fun, project looks like. Once you have the basics down, you can keep tinkering with the circuit, the sounds, and the program to make fancier versions… Read more

Guitar Jingle: Discovering the Locations of Harmonics

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Did you know that your guitar has a secret? Yes, that's right—hidden along each string are special places where you can play harmonics and make your guitar sound like a bell! In this music science fair project, you'll find out where the main harmonics are located on a guitar, and then see how those locations are related to the length of the strings. So get out your guitar—it's time to ring in a science fair project! Read more

Music for Martians: Build and Play a Theremin Instrument

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Here is a riddle for you: name an instrument that you play with your hands but never actually touch. Have you guessed the answer? It is a theremin! This unusual instrument makes sound without anyone touching it. How does a theremin work? It has an antenna that can detect the player's hand nearby, and as they move their hand around the theremin, the sound it makes changes based on the hand's position. In this music science project, you will get to use your own mini theremin to investigate how… Read more

Perfect Pitches with a Rubber Band Guitar

Lesson Plan Grade: 6th-8th

We are surrounded by sounds every day, ranging from unpleasant ones like traffic noise to enjoyable ones like music or singing birds. What makes these sounds different? Why are some louder or higher pitched than others? In this lesson plan, your students will investigate how the properties of a sound wave, like frequency and amplitude, affect the sounds we hear. They will do this using a sensor app than can record sound and frequency data with a mobile phone and a homemade musical… Read more

NGSS Performance Expectations:

MS-PS4-1. Use mathematical representations to describe a simple model for waves that includes how the amplitude of a wave is related to the energy in a wave.

What Material Makes the Most Resonant Soundboard?

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

If you like music and musical instruments, here is a project that might resonate with you! This is a fun experiment to investigate materials that could be used to build acoustic musical instruments. You can use a music box mechanism and a sound level meter to see which materials make the best soundboards. Read more

Background Bop: Do Different Businesses Play Different Tempos in Background Music?

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Walk into a fitness club and what kind of music do you hear? Slow, sparkling, relaxing music? Or driving, "up-tempo" songs that are designed to encourage you to move? Fitness clubs and other businesses, like restaurants and grocery stores, use background music to set the mood and to determine how fast they want their customers to move. The tempo of the background music is a key component to the environment that businesses want to create. Tempo is an important number or word inscribed by a… Read more

Build Your Own Xylophone Out of Copper Pipe

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Did you know that making a musical instrument is not just an art, but a science, too? You can discover just how scientific by building your own xylophone (or a set of chimes) from copper pipe. First you'll need to do some research about the math and physics involved in the sounds of a xylophone. For example, there are equations that describe the transverse (side-to-side) vibrations of a pipe. These vibrations create the sounds you hear. So, to get specific sounds, xylophone makers must apply… Read more

Cha-cha-cha by Latitude

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

You probably know that where you live on Earth affects your weather. If you live in a far northern or far southern latitude, you experience colder temperatures than people who live near the equator at latitudes close to zero. Your latitude on Earth affects many aspects of your culture, like how you dress, what kind of house you live in, what foods you eat, and even how your day is structured: what time you go to school, to dinner, and to sleep. Some cities at latitudes closer to the equator,… Read more

Does Virtual Practice Make Perfect?

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

You've probably heard the phrase, "practice makes perfect" more times than you care to remember, but is it actually true when you use a music game as your practice for real-life singing, strumming, or drumming? You can design a science fair project to discover the answer! First, you'll need to think about how to measure how well someone is playing or singing a song in real life. Using the test you design, measure several musicians' ability to play or sing a few different songs. Then have your… Read more

Sixth Grade, Music Projects, Lessons, Activities (23 results)

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