Grade: 3
Subject: Science
Date: November 17
Unit: Hearing and Sound Topic: Parts of the ear
Length of Lesson: 45 min
General Learning Outcome: Describe the nature of sound, and demonstrate methods
for producing and controlling sound.
Specific Learner Expectations:
Students will:
Recognize that pitch is the result of differences in the rate of vibration, and predict how
a change in the rate of vibration will affect a sound
Describe how the human ear senses vibrations.
Learning Objectives:
Students will:
Recognize that pitch is the result of differences in the rate of vibration.
Describe how the human ear senses vibrations
Resources:
Alberta Program Plan
Edmonton Public Schools Topic D: Hearing and Sound
Materials:
Smartboard
Notes
Parts of the ear on posterboard
Instruments: Maracas, Music sticks
Procedure:
Introduction (8 min)
Say: Alright Grade 3, so I wasn’t entirely convinced that all of you understand what pitch
is from last class, and there were some people missing so we are going to do a quick
review.
- Read pitch from sounds and music
- Pull up a review made on notebook, and go through the questions. Do a body vote for
each question to ensure that everyone is involved.
Attention-Grabber: Who has heard of Dumbo? What did Dumbo have that no one else had?
Procedure (25 min)
- Project a picture of the ear up on the smartboard.
- Say: The ear is broken up into three parts: The Outer Ear, Middle Ear and Inner Ear. Sound
hits the outer ear, called the Pinna. The Pinna is made of skin and soft bone and can be bent
easily. It is kind of like a funnel that directs sound into the Ear Canal. The sound travels
through the Ear Canal to the Ear drum. The Eardrum is a sheet of skin that is stretched across
the entrance to the middle ear. When sound hits the Eardrum it vibrates just like a drum.
Those vibrations then pass through the 3 bones in the middle ear: the hammer, anvil and
stirrup. The stirrup is the smallest bone in the body.
- ASK: Would anyone like to guess how small the bone is? The bone is actually smaller than an
appleseed!
- When those bones vibrate they send a signal to the nerves in the cochlea. Cochlea is a kind of
hard word to say, so lets all say it together. The cochlea is filled with fluid and nerve endings.
In the ear there are also 3 looped tubes called semicircular canals which help to control
balance. THe nerves in the cochlea then travel through the auditory nerve to the brain. and the
brain compares the sound with memories of the sounds that you have heard before. The brain
then tells you what sound it is that you’re hearing. This happens very quickly.
- Explain the activity: Students will be split in half and numbered off. Each number has a
different part of the ear, or will be playing the sound. You will then look at the board and see
what the order is and put the parts of the ear in order. Numbers 10 and 11 will have musical
instruments and will be the sound that travels through the ear. I want you to animate it. The
eardrum, hammer, anvil, stirrup and cochlea should vibrate. The auditory nerve should go and
tell the brain what the sound is!
- Split the kids in half and number them off.
1) Pinna
2) Ear Canal
3) Ear Drum
4) Hammer
5) Anvil
6) Stirrup
7) Cochlea
8) Auditory Nerve
9) Brain
10) 11) The sound that travels through the ear with musical instruments.
- Once the students are finished they can present to the class (depending on time, this can be
cut)
- Get the class back in their desks and hand out the worksheet
- get the kids to fill in the worksheet using the words from the wordbox
Closure:
- Point to the different parts of the smartboard and get the students to say its part.
Assessment:
Observation: Watch the students do their animation activity and their worksheets
Worksheet: Get the students to fill in the blanks
Quesitoning: Both individual and class questioning