Sound, Hearing and Health

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Sound, Hearing and Health

• Eva West Florentina Lustig
• Department of Education, Göteborg University,
  Sweden

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Subjects involved

• Physics (Sound)
• Chemistry (Particle model)
• Biology (Structure and function of the ear,
  nervous system)

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The teaching-learning sequence contains
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CHAPTERS

• PREFACE
• HEALTH AND ATTITUDES
• IN CURRICULA AND SYLLABUSES
• SOUND AND HEARING THROUGHOUT HISTORY
• MATTER AND SOUND
• HEARING
• ANIMALS, SOUND AND HEARING
• CONCEPTIONS ABOUT SOUND AND HEARING
• TEACHING GOALS
• FORMATIVE EVALUATION
• TEACHING PROPOSALS
• SUPPLEMENT (QUESTIONS)
• REFERENCES

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Teaching and evaluation of the pupils learning
and attitudes

• 1 Attitude questionnaire
• 2. Pretests (Teachershelp)
• 3. Teaching and formative assessment
• 4. Posttests
• 5. Attitude questionnaire

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Attitude questionnaire

• Examples
• Completely Do not
• agree agree at all
• 1. I think about what sound level I 5
  4 3 2 1
• have when I listen to music
• Before teaching 3 11 20
  24 40
• 2. The sound level at the disco is 5
  4 3 2 1
• not a problem
• Before teaching 7 1 31
  18 37
• N87

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Pretests (Teachershelp)

• Examples
• Its only if you get an earache from the loud
  music that there is a risk of getting tinnitus.
• Before teaching Many pupils answer yes!
• Age 10 8 of 15 girls 13 of 16 boys
• Age 12 2 of 19 girls 5 of 14 boys
• (there is a tinnitus boy in this group)

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Pretests (Teachershelp)

• Examples
• Pia and Peter are swimming in Stone Lake. Pia
  dives to the bottom followed by Peter immediately
  after. Pia picks up two stones and hits them
  against each other under the surface of the
  water.
• Is there any sound coming from the stones? Put
  an X in the box that you think has the best
  answer.
• ? Yes, I think so because.31 pupils of
  45
• ? No, I dont think so because 11 pupils
  of 45

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Pretests (Teachershelp)

• Yes, I think so because. A lot of different
  explanations
• Examples
• - I have done it by myself (my own experience
  but no scientific explanation)
• - The sound waves are moving down there.
• - There is air in the water.
• - There are vibrations from the stones.
• - They are close.
• - It comes a little later than she does it like
  an echo, and the water is in its way.

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1. An important question in the society - health
and public economy

• Examples (Research based)
• Young pupils are more uncritical to high sound
  levels
• Young people have inadequate knowledge about
  high music levels might cause lasting hearing
  impairment. Infants below the age of 13 are
  extraordinary sensitive to high sound levels
• There is an increase in hearing impairments
  among young people during the last ten years
• About 40 of the pupils think that the sound
  levels of discos in the schools are too high
• Only 10 protect their ears against high sound
  levels at discos in the school

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1. Attitudes

• Examples (Research based)
• How young people argue about sound levels
• Boys and girls
• Musicians
• Socio-economic differences

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2. The history of ideas about sound and hearing
from classical antiquity until now

• Examples
• Pythagoras, da Vinci, Galilei (sound)
• Ingrassia, Eustachius (ear)
• Bell (telephone), Edison (phonograph)

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3. National Curriculum

• The school is responsible for ensuring that all
  pupils completing compulsory school have
  fundamental knowledge about what is necessary to
  maintain good health and also understand the
  importance of lifestyle for health and the
  environment.

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3. Goals in the Swedish national curriculum that
pupils should have attained by the end of the
fifth year in school

• Pupils should
• have an insight into the fundamentals of
  dispersion of sound, hearing
• (physics sound, hearing)
• be familiar with important organs in their
  (pupils) own bodies and their functions (biology
  structure and function of ear)
• be able to carry out simple systematic
  observations and experiments, as well as compare
  their predictions with actual results (science
  studies)
• concerning use of knowledge, have an insight into
  how arguments over daily environmental and health
  issues can be built up through the use of
  personal experiences and scientific knowledge
  (science studies)
• be familiar with some episodes in the history of
  science and through this have an insight into
  different ways of explaining nature (science
  studies)

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4. Brief facts about matter, sound and hearing

• A simple particle model for all matter
• The propagation of sound
• Absorbation and reflection
• The properties of sound pitch and loudness
• The ear anatomy and physiology
• Hearing-impairments (tinnitus etc.)

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5. Animals, sound and hearing

• The importance of sound and hearing for different
  animals
• Differences in the physiology
• Sound sources in the Internet examples

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6. Research results

• Childerns, pupils and students everyday ideas
  about sound
• Pupils and students understanding of sound

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7. Conceptions of sound

• Summary of contents, everyday understanding and
  scientific understanding (goals)
• An example

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8. Goals for teaching (proposals)

• Possible aims of sound and hearing
• Ex There is a sound when things vibrate
• Possible aims of processes
• Ex Have a glimse of how to build up an
  argumentation in an everyday environmental and
  healhy question of sound by personal experiences
  and scientific knowledge

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9. Strategies for teaching

• How to develop the pupils understanding of
  concepts
• Assessment
• Formativ assessment
• Language, mathematics and art
• Scientific investigations (To raise questions,
  make hypothesis, plan and carry out
  investigations and present results)

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10. Teaching proposals

• Structure
• Goal
• Suggestions for
• - experiments
• - questions for individual work and
  groupdiscussions
• - etc.

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11. Contents

• Sound is generated by vibrations
• Matter is necessary for the propagation of sound
• Sound propagates through vibrations in the ear
  and is further transformed to electrical signals
  in the nervous system
• The signals are transported to the brain, which
  translates the electrical signals to our
  perception of sound

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11. Generic skills within the context of sound

• To solve a problem of sound levels in a
  class-disco
• Decision-making
• Practice information and argumentation skills in
  relation to this
• Practice critical thinking
• Practice how to separate personal values and
  scientific knowledge

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11. Supplement (Questions)

• Selected questions for
• pre- post- and delayed posttest,
• individual work or
• group-discussions

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• The end

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