Second Class and Materials
Second class have been really busy learning all about materials. We have been examining how different materials are used in our environment.
There is building work happening outside our classroom at the moment and it is a bit noisy. We decided we would experiment with different materials to make earmuffs for ourselves so that we can work in peace!
Choosing Materials
Everybody in the class decided they would bring different things from their house to test for our earmuffs. We collected:
Paper towels, cotton wool, paper cups, tinfoil and wool pompoms.
We knew we wanted earmuffs that were comfortable, hands-free and would block out lots of sound…
Fair Test
How could we test the earmuffs fairly? J suggested it would be a good idea to choose one ‘test sound’. We decided on a video of a drummer because sometimes the building work sounds a bit like this!
N said that we should choose three people to test all of the earmuffs. We agreed this was a great idea- it was time to design and make!
Method
We split into groups of three and quickly started testing different materials for their ability to block sound, and for their comfort on our ears.
After lots of testing, we discovered the following things:
- Paper cups are comfortable on our ears but they don’t block out the sound very well.
- Tinfoil looks cool, but it doesn’t block out sound well either! Tin foil is useful for making the headset. It holds its shape really well.
- Tissue is tricky to use, but it’s a good insulator of sound- especially when we tear it into little pieces.
- Pompoms look great, but they don’t block out the sound very well.
- Layering materials is a good insulator of sound.
Conclusion
All the groups worked really hard and designed amazing earmuffs in lots of different ways.
Our three testers tried out all of the earmuffs and picked which one they thought was the best at blocking the sound.
They voted unanimously for O’s pair. We were all impressed because O tore up lots of little pieces of tissue and used them to make ear muffs. This blocked out almost all of the sound.
Tomorrow we are going to make a pair for all of us!
Check out some pictures from our Design and Make session below.
