back

Sixth Grade Physical Science

Background

I took over two sixth grade physical science classes as a long-term substitute in April 2002. The classes contained 12-15 students. Unlike the seventh grade classes, these students stayed together throughout the day as a unit. There were two sixth grade teachers who taught math, writing, reading and social sciences. I only met with each sixth grade class twice a week for one 80-minute period and one 40-minute period. I usually used this format to do an interactive lab during the 80-minute period and used the 40-minute period for follow-up.

Both sixth grade classes had more than twice as many girls as boys. I found that this gender imbalance, along with the developmental level of the students, created an energetic, but often unruly class dynamic. There were a wide range of abilities and styles of learning within the classes, which also made them challenging to strucure. I found that students were best able to work in a productive way when the class began with a short group introduction/problem solving session and the rest of the class was used for independent or small group work.

For the first four weeks, I introduced the studentsto the topic of sound, covering the following concepts and information:

• Describing and characterizing sounds
  
• Sound waves (frequency and amplitude)
  
• Changes in sound waves (pitch and loudness)
  
• Music vs. Noise
  
• Musical Instruments (resonance, natural frequencies and overtones)
  
• The Ear (form and function)

Percussion, Winds and Srings

Sample Lesson: Testing for the Mozart Effect

Goals

At the end of the unit on sound and music, I wanted the students to be able to take the concepts that they had learned in class during the previous weeks and apply them to a new situation. I wanted them to be involved in the scientific process and to practice their critical thinking skills. I also wanted to create a fun activity that would capture the students' interest.

Objectives

• All students will be involved in the scientific process at the levels of forming a hypothesis, designing elements of an experiment and collecting and analyzing data.
  
• All students will understand the importance of critically examining the results of scientific experiments, including those conducted by other scientists.
  
• All students will have an understanding of what the Mozart Effect is.

Lesson 1: Testing for the Mozart Effect (40 min)

** Note: Students received a reading describing the Mozart Effect, the experiments done to test for it and the skepticism surrounding the phenomenon. For homework, they did the reading and answered four questions about it. They were also asked to bring in a CD or tape of their favorite music.

click here to view Music, Mind and Intelligence reading and homework questions

click here to view Mozart Effect Lab Instructions Handout

• Ask students to take out the homework reading and questions. Go over the questions as a class, making sure that all students have an understanding of what the Mozart Effect is, why some people think it exists and why others are skeptical of its existence. Ask them to express their own opinions and ideas.
  
• Tell the students that we are going to test for the Mozart Effect in our own class. Ask them to get out their music.
  
• Have the students select, as a class, two tapes or CD’s to use in testing for the Mozart Effect. Have them express why they think these two types of music will be interesting to study.
  
• Give the students the handout describing what they will do for the lab and go over the directions with them.
  
• Each student should form a hypothesis about under which conditions they think that the class a whole will perform the best on memory and IQ problems and WHY.
  
• Take the class to the computer room, where each student has his/her own computer.
  
• Students should link to Queendom.com (www.queendom.com/mindgames/mindstretching/allgames.htm), a website that has sets of memory/IQ problems that they can solve individually and then will be scored for them.
  
• Students solve sets of problems under the following conditions and record their scores:
  
  • Silence
    
  • Mozart
  • Music Type 2 (selected by students)
    
  • Music Type 3 (selected by students)
    
• Students return to the classroom and record their scores on a large data sheet. We then average the scores for each condition.

Lesson 2: Analyzing the Data (40 min)

click here to view Data Analysis Intructions and Questions

• When the students come into class, we look at the class averages under each condition and discuss the following questions:
  
  • Under which conditions did the class do the best? The worst?
    
  • Do these results surprise you or did they agree with your hypothesis?
    
  • Was this difference large or small between the different averages?
    
  • Why do you think that we got these results?
    
  • Do they support or fail to support the existence of the Mozart Effect?
    
  • What would you do differently if we did this experiment again.
    
• Next, ask students to work independently to:
  
  • Make a graph that shows the average scores.
    
  • Write out answers to the questions discussed above in a handout.
    
• Do a sample graph at the board stressing:
  
• Scale
  
• Meaningful use of color
  
• Neatness and legibility
  
• Label axes
  
• Meaningful title
  
• Allow students to work for the rest of the class on the graph and questions, which they will turn in at the end of the period for evaluation.
  

Class data chart showing average percent problems correct under different musical conditions

• Nick
• Lynn