From your Project 3 group
1. Final report on your activity. Describe the goal of the activity, its evolution, and final documentation.
2. Handout sheet for students doing your activity
3. Sheet for instructors -- Be sure to include a check list of items necessary for the activity, explain what
the children should learn, include sample questions, discuss how the activity can be modified for
different age groups.
Outreach Activity for Engineering Education
-- How CD player works?
Prepared by:
Nuri A. Miller
Brian D. Mendelssohn
Wai-Ki Tracy Yu
Checklist:
Computer
Computer Software ‘Shockware’
Website ‘http://www.skidoop.com/~bdm/seeingsound/’
Demonstration kit [ready-made]
Student’s handout [one for each student & make extra copies]
Pencils [one for each student]
Erasers [a few]
Acitivties:
Part I -- Demonstration
The outreach faculty member(s) will demonstrate the ready-made experimental kit to the children. The
demonstration shows how laser:
travels through space,
get reflected through mirrors and other surfaces,
through a receiver and processor,
the information is read and translated into ‘1’s and ‘0’s, and
is transported to the final receiver and the output device.
Part II -- ‘’Seeing Sound Module’ -- children writes their own music.
After seeing the demonstration and somewhat understand the process of how music is interpreted into
‘1’s and ‘0’s, the children are now prepared to compose their own simple piece of music. The children
will follow the student’s handout ‘Seeing Sound Module’, to compose the music. Upon completion of
the written part of the exercise, they will enter the corresponding binary codes into the computer
software to hear their music composition.
Part III – ‘Name that Tune’ –
Music will be played from the computer, and the binary forms of ‘1’s and ‘0’s will be come up at the
computer screen. Children can try to name the songs being played.
This is a reverse process of part II. Instead of inputting the binary codes, children will now see the
binary codes on the computer screen as the music is being played. This demonstrates to the children
that this is a 2-way process.
Targets
Age 7 to 11 years
[to make this activity suitable for other age groups, see ‘Modification’]
Children should learn …
Music played by CD players are in binary codes of ‘1’s and ‘0’s.
Laser travels by reflecting off surfaces. It behaves differently when travels through different materials.
Activity Program
Introduction
Warm-up
Demonstration
Explanation of ‘Creation’
‘Creation’ of music
Testing out the ‘Creation’
Explanation of ‘Name that Tune’
‘Name that Tune’
Wrap-up
5-10 minutes
15 minutes
20 minutes
5 minutes
5-10 minutes
30 minutes
5 minutes
30 minutes
10 minutes
Total time involved
2 hours 25 minutes (approximation)
Introduction
Outreach faculty members introduce themselves, and let children settled down and be familiar with their
leaders of the day.
Warm-Up
Warm-up exercises, related to music. For example, playing ‘musical chair’, asking children what music
they like, or musical instruments they know of [see sample questions].
Demonstration (activity part I)
Faculty members demonstrate how a CD player works through the experiment kit that we have
prepared. Children may adjust the angles of the mirrors in the experiment, to increase the level of
interaction.
Explanation of ‘Seeing Sound Module’
Faculty members pass out the student’s handout to each children, and introduce and explain the next
exercise.
‘Seeing Sound Module’ (activity part II)
Children are given their handouts to write their own music in codes of ‘1’s and ‘0’s. There is no limit to
how long their music can be. Each note corresponds to a 4-digit binary code as below:C
1010
C#
0011
D
1110
D#
0001
E
0110
F
1101
F#
1001
G
0010
G#
0111
A
A#
B
Space
1011
1111
0100
0000
(These codes have been programmed into the computer.)
Testing out the ‘Creation’
Children will insert their creation in binary codes form into the computer, website:
‘http://www.skidoop.com/~bdm/seeingsound/’. They will then hear their ‘creation’ from the output
device of speakers. They can then make changes to their music, or have another ‘creation’ made for
further testing. This process allows children to learn that their input of binary codes actually
correspond to musical notes that they are familiar with, and that music is actually ‘1’s and ‘0’s.
Children can then go to page 2 of handout if they want to compose more music.
Explanation of ‘Name that Tune’ (activity part III)
Faculty members introduce and explain the next exercise.
‘Name that Tune’
Faculty members will play the music that has already been programmed into the computer. These are
music pieces that children are familiar with, for example, ‘London Bridge is Falling Down’, ‘Happy
Birthday’, and ‘We Wish You are a Merry Christmas’. These musical pieces are written in binary code
form. Children can compete against each other to see who can name the song faster. Also, the binary
codes of the music will be shown on the computer screen as the music is being played. Children can
observe this and understand that this is a reversible process.
Wrap-Up
Faculty members ask children how they like the couple hours they have spent together, and what the
children have learnt that day.
Sample questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
What types of music do you like to listen to?
Does anyone play a music instrument?
Does your family or yourself own a CD player?
Do you know how a CD player works? Do you want to know how it works?
Have you heard of ‘laser’? Where do you hear that being used?
Is ‘laser’ magic?
Do you know how we see light … the sun, the moon? [by reflectivity]
Modification for different age groups
According to Piaget’s stages of child development, children at the age of 7 to 11 years are at their ‘concrete
operations’, where:
1.Reasoning process becomes logical
can be applied to concrete problems
begins to solve problems "in head"
2.Makes cognitive and logical decisions
decanters perception
attends successive steps or sequences
3.Classification and serration
mentally classifies objects and events
mentally relates them
mentally arrange elements according to size
mentally arrange events in series
length (7 years)
width (9 years)
volume (12 years)
4.Understanding of space, time, and speed
5.Understanding of cause and effect relationships
6.Solve conservation problems
number (6-7 years)
area and mass (7-8 years)
volume (11-12 years)
7.Reversibility of operations (A-B-C -> C-B-A)
8.Cooperative communication evolves
9.Limitations
cannot solve intangible problems
hypothetical
complex verbal
involving future
only problems using real objects
isolate problems