As part of our Science learning, Year Four have been exploring how sound travels. We have already learnt that sound travels through the particles which vibrate to create sound waves, which eventually reaches our ear and is transmitted to the receptors in the brain. We decided to test whether we could use a pair of paper cups, string, a pencil and teamwork to find out if this is possible. Once we gathered our resources, we worked in pairs to make a hole at the base of the cup so that we could thread and tie the string. The toughest part was tying the knot once the string had been threaded. We worked speed and precision simply because we were so excited to test our paper cup telephones in the playground.

Once in the playground, we unravelled our string and began testing our telephones. At first, we heard we little, the sound was inaudible and muffled, this is where we were able to show our resilience. We then had a brief discussions about what adjustments needed to be made. After that we, made sure that the string was not slack – a slack string would not allow the vibrations of the sound to travel to the cup. We also made sure that the cup was placed close to the mouth of the person who was speaking, in order to catch all the sound that was being transmitted. With these adjustments to our experiments we were able to have a conversation with our partner. It was fantastic! We are amazing problem solvers and super sound engineers!