Speaker Lab

Student Teachers Name: Kayla Rhodes

Date: 4/10/15
Lesson Title: Speaker Lab
Subject: Conceptual Physics
Instruction time: 1 hr. 25 min.
Students level by grade: 9th
Standard(s) to be addressed:

Understand the properties and interactions of mechanical waves

Understand the role of the medium in the behavior or the wave

Enduring Understandings/Essential Questions targeted in this lesson:

What determines the volume and pitch of the sound coming from the speaker?
What is the role of electromagnetism in a working speaker?

Learning Objectives for this lesson

Investigate the properties of mechanical waves

Explain the role of electromagnets in a speaker
Identify the variables that affect loudness and # of back and forth movements/second

Identified Student needs and plans for differentiation:

Student choice, graphic organizers, modeling, grouping, and social learning are incorporated into
the lesson to support different learning needs.
Specific resources needed for this lesson:
Styrofoam plates, scissors, magnetic wire, strips of paper, tape, strong magnets, hot glue, index
cards cut in half, cardboard, radio to connect speakers to, and lab handout
Instructional methods used in this lesson:
Inquiry, modeling, discussion, and demonstration.
Lesson Sequence:
Hook:Playing music on control speaker
Direct instruction/modeling: Review of electromagnetism: components and process, model how
to build a speaker.
Guided Practice: Group work, students choose a variable to change. Give examples of how they
might change each variable.

Independent Practice: After testing their speakers

Check for understanding and scaffolding of student learning: Circulate around the room, using
inquiry to check for understanding: How did your speaker sound compare to the control speaker?
Assessment of/for learning: Inquiry.While students are testing their speaker ask them: What type
of energy is represented by the vibrations you feel coming from the speaker? What energy
transfer process is occurring? Which of the magnetic fields must be changing so that vibration
occurs? What is causing the magnetic field to change?
Closure of the lesson: Clean up and explaining what is happening between the permanent magnet
and the coil of wire.
Bridge to next lesson: Be thinking about what determines the volume and pitch of the sound
coming from your speakers.
How will you modify or adjust this lesson in the future?
I will have a more efficient system for hot gluing the speakers together. Speeding up this process
might give students more time to modify their speakers to have more evidence in supporting
their answers to the investigating question.