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Discover how music creates vibrations you can see using salt and a portable speaker! Then try experimenting with different genres of music to see which ones make the salt dance more. What's going on? Speakers, like your Bluetooth speaker, produce sound by creating vibrations in the air. Normally, we only hear these vibrations, and we can't easily see them. Plastic wrap, though, is lightweight and thin enough to vibrate in response to the sounds coming from the speakers. These vibrations move through the plastic wrap unevenly, pushing and shoving the salt around in interesting patterns. As a song progresses, these vibrations change, and the salt moves as if it were dancing. If you can find a YouTube video of a pure tone (like a single, sustained note), observe what happens to the salt when you play that tone through the speakers. A pure tone will create a consistent, unchanging vibration in the plastic wrap. Instead of dancing around, the salt should collect in places in the plastic wrap that aren't vibrating, making patterns that depend on the frequency of the pure tone. Try a few other pure tones, one at a time, to see some other interesting patterns!

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With the speaker facing up, tape six popsicle sticks around the outside of the speaker. 

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Cut a piece of plastic wrap large enough to cover and stretch tightly over the top of the popsicle sticks and secure with a rubber band.  

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Sprinkle salt onto the plastic wrap. Then, connect the speaker to the cell phone, play a song, and watch the salt move to the music! Troubleshooting: If the salt isn’t moving, first try increasing the volume. If it still isn’t moving, try moving the plastic wrap closer to the speaker by shortening the distance between the top of the popsicle sticks and the speaker. Optional: To see the salt more clearly, try dyeing it with food coloring! Simply combine salt and one or two drops of food coloring in a sandwich bag and shake the bag until fully mixed.

speaker (bluetooth)

cell phone

popsicle stick (6)

tape

plastic wrap

rubber band

salt

food coloring (optional)

Dancing Salt

sounds

science project

quick experiment

Can a Slinky make music? This sound effect experiment uses a cup to help amplify the sound of a Slinky and explore sound vibrations.

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Wrap the cup in wrapping paper to decorate it. 

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 Poke a hole in the middle of the bottom of the cup. The hole should be large enough to thread the slinky through.

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Push one end of the slinky up through the hole in the bottom of the cup, leaving about three spirals inside the cup and the rest of the slinky hanging out the bottom.  

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Holding the cup steady, let the slinky bounce up and down. Do you hear it? What kinds of sounds does it make?

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Experiment further with a plastic slinky. Does it make the same sound as a metal slinky? Try letting the bottom of the slinky hit the floor. Does it make a different or more pronounced sound?

Have you ever wondered how the “Pew! Pew!” laser sounds in Star Wars and other sci-fi movies were made? No, they weren’t real lasers. The sound engineers who make those otherworldly sounds actually use a very down-to-earth technique: they flick a slinky or a long metal wire. Slinkies (and solids in general) can transmit sound. You normally think of sound as a vibration in the air, but the air isn’t the most important part — the vibration is. As long as a solid can shake and vibrate, a sound can travel through it just like through the air. This is why you can hear a train approaching from far away if you put your ear to the ground. If the vibration in the solid is strong enough (or amplified by something, like a cup), it’ll also vibrate the air, which you can hear normally! The weird thing about sound in solids, though, is that different parts of a sound move through them at different speeds. High-pitched parts travel really quickly in solids, while low-pitched parts travel slower. So when you flick a slinky, the high-pitched parts of the flicking sound reach your ear first, followed by the lower and lower parts. It sounds kind of like someone running their finger super fast down a piano keyboard. Slinkies and wires are great for demonstrating this because they’re long (which gives the sound more time and space to split up) and they’re good at carrying vibrations. Find out what splitting sound sounds like with this acoustical project!

paper cup

pushpin

slinky

scissors

wrapping paper

Slinky Sound Effect

KiwiCo crate box

recycled craft materials

recycled

musical instrument

Create a recycled musical instrument using just an empty cardboard box and rubber bands. Then decorate, play, and explore sound vibrations!

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Open your crate and paint the bottom and inner sides with a bright and fun color acrylic paint. Wait for the paint to dry. 

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Close the box and find a round shape to trace for the main sound hole of the guitar. We used a medium sized bowl, but a wide drinking glass or a CD would work too. Close your crate and lay the round item on top of the lid so it's centered width-wise on the crate, but closer to one end. Trace the edge with a pen or pencil. 

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Using a craft knife, make the initial cut into the traced line. Always make sure to cut away from you! Continue cutting along the traced line around the entire circle. If needed, have a parent help with this step.

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Now turn your crate and look at the side panel of the box near the big hole. Place your craft tube on the center of the top panel and trace it. With a parent's help, carefully cut out the traced circle.

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The craft tube will serve as the neck of the guitar. Decorate it and get creative! We wrapped bright paper around the neck and also added pom poms to represent the tuning pegs of the guitar. If you like, you could also decorate it with paint or washi tape. 

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Insert the craft tube into the smaller hole along the side of the box. If necessary, add some hot glue to the sides of the hole to keep the neck in place.

Fold a piece of cardstock paper a few times over, like an accordion. Glue the folded paper below the large hole, on the opposite end of the guitar neck. This will serve as the bridge for your guitar, lifting the rubber bands off the crate.

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Loop four long rubber bands (2 on each side of the craft tube) around the crate.

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Strum the DIY guitar! We found that adding different thicknesses and sizes of rubber bands to create different tones! We also tied a ribbon to our guitar to represent a guitar strap.

empty crate

craft tube

4 rubber bands

card stock

craft knife

pen or pencil

pom poms

acrylic craft paint

paint

small bowl

glue gun

Cardboard Guitar

craft

useful craft project

construction

Make a rockin' customizable speaker for you and your friends to enjoy with just a few household items! Understand how sound vibrations can travel through different mediums and how the shape of the mediums can cause the sounds to be amplified!

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Measure the width and depth of the music playing device you plan to use, like a cell phone. Using these dimensions, cut out a slot in the kraft tube to fit the phone. The speaker portion will need to fit into the tube when you’re finished.

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Now it’s time to decorate! There’s no one way to do this! We painted our kraft tube with acrylic paint, added polka-dots with a circular sponge brush, and dip-dyed our cups by dunking them into a bowl of liquid watercolors. Get creative with your crafting techniques, this speaker could make a great accent to any room! 

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Hold your kraft tube to the side of the cup near the bottom. Use a marker to trace the edge of the tube on the cup. Do this to both cups. Using a craft knife, cut out the holes you just traced. If needed, an adult should do any major cutting.

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Insert the kraft tube into the holes in the both of cups. Angle the kraft tube so that the slot is pointing almost directly upright, but slightly backwards. When the kraft tube positioned in the cups, use hot glue to secure it in place.

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Now insert the music device into the slot and crank up the tunes. You should hear music playing from the cups louder than the device can do on its own.

After some trial and error, we found that plastic cups worked better than paper cups! Try experimenting with your cups to see what works best for you.

2 paper cups

1 kraft tube

knife

marker

hot glue

DIY Phone Speaker

toy design

building

easy craft

household craft

We have been into making music for the past few weeks at our house so we decided to add to our growing collection of instruments by making this kazoo!Explore nature's music with a <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/us/store/dp/wind-chimes-project-kit/4502" target="_self">Wind Chimes kit</a> from the <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/store" target="_self">KiwiCo Store</a>! Craft and decorate wind chimes and experience hands-on fun!

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Begin by ripping off a small piece of wax paper and place it over one end of a toilet paper roll. Fasten it down with a rubber band. 

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Then, take something sharp to poke some holes in the wax paper. You could use a wooden skewer or a sharp pencil. 

Place your mouth directly over the other end and hum and/or sing into the kazoo. Your tune will vibrate and some out sounding really neat! My daughter hummed "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" into her kazoo! 

wax paper

rubber bands

toilet paper tubes

sharp pencil

Toilet Paper Roll Kazoo

game

Celebrate Alexander Graham Bell Day by making a paper cup telephone and learning about sound and waves!Take outdoor play to the next level by building your own <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/us/store/dp/splash-blasters-project-kit/3830" target="_self">Splash Blasters</a> from the <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/store" target="_self">KiwiCo Store</a>! Each kit includes everything needed to have a blast!

Did you know that sound is a wave? Not like a wave you’d ride on a surfboard, but similar. Sound is a wave that travels through the air. It starts from a vibrating thing, like a plucked guitar string or a ringing bell. The vibrating thing moves the air around it back and forth, sending out waves in the air like ripples on a pond. When those waves hit your ear, you hear them as sound! Sound waves can hit other things too. They have energy, and just like ocean waves crashing against a cliff, they give that energy to things they hit. When sound waves hit the thin bottom of a paper cup, for instance, they make it vibrate. And if that paper cup is connected to a string, then the vibrating of the cup makes the string vibrate too. And if that string is connected to another paper cup, then that paper cup will also vibrate. That means you can hear the sound from one paper cup to another!
 So weirdly, even though sound is a wave in air, it can travel through other things too — as long as they can carry its vibrations. Try transferring sound with this phone-tastic project!

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Poke a hole in the middle of the bottom of each cup. The hole should be large enough to thread the string through. 

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Cut a piece of string at least 5 inches long. Then, pull either end of the string through the bottom of each cup. 

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Tie a paper clip to each end of the string. The paper clips will keep the string from pulling out of the cups. 

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Hand a friend one of the cups. While you hold the other, walk away from your friend. Stop walking when the string is tight! 

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Have your friend place their cup over one of their ears while you speak into your cup. Can they hear you? 

Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the first practical telephone, based his design on similar ideas to this string cup telephone. The telephone has a microphone that gets energy from sound waves spoken into it, and a speaker that vibrates to make the sound you hear. Instead of using a string to transmit the sound, though, the telephone uses electricity! 

paper cups (2)

string

Scissors

paper clips (2)

friend

Paper Cup Telephone

engineering

STEM

<h3>How to Make a Pendulum Wave Toy</h3>A pendulum is a hanging weight that swings back and forth, like the swinging arm on a grandfather clock or a swing on a playground. When you pull a swing - or any pendulum - up to one side, gravity tugs it back down. But since the swing is attached by a rope or chain, it doesn’t just drop to the ground. Instead, it swings back and forth, over and over. But what happens when you have a bunch of different-sized pendulums swinging together? Make this mesmerizing pendulum wave toy to find out!Explore more methods for creating motion with the <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/us/store/dp/store-hydraulic-claw-project-kit/5728" target="_self">Hydraulic Claw Project</a> from the <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/store" target="_self">KiwiCo Store</a>! Engineer your own hydraulic lifting claw with tubes, syringes, and water before putting it through a series of fun challenges.

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Cut the foam core into the shape of the letter "I" about 8½ inches wide and 11 inches tall. 

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 Cut two short strips from the leftover foam core.

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Poke a hole in each corner of the "I" with a pencil. Then, use the pencil to widen them.

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Poke a hole in both ends of the strip with a pencil. Then, use the pencil to widen them. 

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Stick one dowel into each hole in the "I". 

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Push the small strips on top of the four dowels.

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Lay one dowel across the top and secure it with four rubber bands. 

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Tie about 18 inches of string to each bead. 

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Tie each consecutive bead to the dowel, tying each bead a little bit lower than the one before it. 

Make sure the beads are evenly spaced apart. 

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Push the beads out with an extra piece of foam core. Then, let go and observe what happens!

13 cool sound science projects for kids

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