My Scientific Identity:

I am a person who is enthralled by technology and my scientific identity also

reflects that. I have always been fascinated by inventions and technological
things and hence, used to fix electronic things at home by myself. For example,
if we had our telephone broken, I would open the telephone and fix it. If our
radio was broken I used to fix that and was always appreciated and rewarded
by my parents and elders. This encouragement from them and being successful
in all my little experiments made me more confident as I grew up. I always
tried to fix things on my own and this habit of mine became a trait of my
identity with time. It was definitely a positive experience as it gave me a sense
of respect and belonging. I still remember a very good example from my
childhood which would certainly reflect my scientific identity more clearly and I
would also be using this example as the activity for my assignment as it aligns
very well with the topic. We were not a very wealthy family when I was a child
and we didn’t have many things as our neighbours did at that time. One of the
things was a telephone. Obviously being a child and out of curiosity I wanted to
have a phone for myself and thus, went to my parents and asked for one. They
didn’t say we cannot afford it but in fact said that if I wanted one I need to
make one myself. As mentioned above I was a curious child inclined towards
technology. Hence, I went out and started my research and found that there is
a wire attached to a receiver in which a person speaks and the voice travels
through it and that is why the other person holding the other end of the wire
attached to another receiver can hear what is said on the other end. I had no
idea about the science behind it but figured that our voice would pass through
the wire. This seemed enough research to a child and I went on to invent a
telephone for myself. To do this I took help from my elder sister who obviously
knew how to make a matchbox telephone at that time. She taught me how to
make one for myself. I tried making it and it was a successful experiment and
gave me a boost of confidence that in future made me more confident and
competitive as a child. This interest of mine made me more curious about
everything and thus a bright student of science later in school. Moving on to
the activity lets unfold how the activity is done and explore more as it
progresses. This activity is a mix of physical science and how it is applied to
invent technology.

The one question that came in mind at that time was ‘How does sound travel
through a string?’ Unfortunately there was no answer to this at that time but
now we all can find out together “How”.

Inquiry Investigation:

Activity:

Making a String Telephone.

Topic- Sound (Physical Sciences)

Inquiry Question
Will sound travel through a string?
Design and conduct
Outcomes:
By the end of the investigation:
1. How are sound waves produced?
2. Does sound travels through a string?
3. What happens to the sound if we keep the string lose?
 4. What happens to the sound if we keep the string tight?
Resources
 Paper or Plastic cups
 Scissors or Pencil
 Thread 

Methods

1. First step is to get all the resources in one place on a table.

2. Make holes at the bottom of the cups in the centre with a small scissor
or a sharp pencil.

3. Put the thread inside the holes and then tie a knot on the inner side of
the cups to secure the thread. So that the thread does not comes off.

4. Our string telephone is ready.

5. Now standing 2 metre apart from each other we tried to speak through
the string telephone.

6. We tried to keep the string lose and talk.

7. Then we tried to keep it tight and talk again.

8. We also tried to pinch the string and tried talking again.

Findings (Results and Discussion)
Our activity was done based on the hypothesis that the sound will travel via the
string no matter how the string is held lose or tight. However, our initial
hypothesis was disproven after performing the activity. We found that if we
kept the string loose the sound did not reach the other end. Whereas, when
the string is held tight the sound did travel to the other end. We also
discovered that sound did not travel to the other end when we tried speaking
with someone pinching the string in between.
To find out why the sound did not reach the other end when the string was
held loose or when pinched we need to know a little bit about the background
of the sound.
Sound is produced when the air molecules vibrate either through speech like
when we speak or when vibration is produced by other sources such as guitar
or violin through its strings. Sound travels in waves and that is why it travels
better in solids and liquids than in air (Harmon, 2011).
Observation: We observed in our activity that when I spoke into one cup my
voice made the bottom of the cup vibrate and that vibration travelled through
the string in waves to the other end and made the air inside that cup vibrate
which lets the other person listen to what I said.
We also observed that the sound travelled better when the string was held
tight and firm because the waves had a nice pathway to travel but if the string
was not held tight the waves would get lost in between and could not reach
the other end.
In conclusion, this investigation proved that sound can travel through a string
only when it is held tight, with no other obstruction in between.

Alignment of this activity with the EYLF and Australian

Curriculum:
This experiment is in alignment with the-Early Years Learning Framework-
Outcome 4(Children are Confident and Involved Learners), specifically the Key
Component 2-Children develop a range of skills and processes such as problem
solving, enquiry, experimentation, hypothesising, researching and investigating
(Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations[DEEWR],
2009, p. 34). In this activity we had a hypothesis that the sound will travel
through the string and then our investigation resulted that yes sound can travel
via the string but only if it is held tight enough for the sound waves to travel
smoothly.
It also inclines towards the Key Component 3-Children transfer and adapt what
they have learned from one context to another (DEEWR, 2009, p. 34).Through
this activity children will learn how sound travels and will apply the knowledge
from this activity to work out how the old landline telephones worked and this
will create curiosity in them to find out how mobile phones work aligning it
with the Key Component 1: Children develop dispositions such as curiosity,
cooperation, confidence, creativity(DEEWR,2009, p. 34).

Similarly, this activity also aligns with Australian Curriculum, Assessment and
Reporting Authority [ACARA]-Sub-Strand Physical Sciences for Year 1- “ Light
and sound are produced by a range of sources and can be sensed”( Australian
Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority,n.d.,ACSSU020).
Along with the above mentioned curriculum outcomes, performing this activity
with children will also expose children to new vocabulary and teach them the
importance of teamwork. It will also engage them in class and allow them to
learn new vocabulary and teach them how to follow instructions. Overall this
activity will help in the cognitive development of children along with their
knowledge of science.
References :

 Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (n.d.).

The Australian Curriculum: Science. Retrieved from
https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/science
 Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations [DEEWR].
(2009). Belonging, Being and Becoming. The Early Years Learning Framework
for Australia, Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.

 Harmon, K. (2011, May 6). Talk through a String Telephone. Scientific

American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/talk-through-a-string-
telephone-bring-science-home/