Music with Water

• This experiment is easy to perform, and can teach kids the basic principles of how sound travels. It is done by getting numerous glasses---five or more is ideal---and filling them with differing amounts of water. Arrange the glasses from the one with the least amount of water to the one with the most, and hit each one with a pencil or stick. The tone produced by the glasses will have different pitches, and the reason behind it reveals some interesting information about sound. The different glasses produce different pitches because sound waves are slowed when they travel through water, resulting in a lower pitch produced by glasses with more water. You can get the children to try to play a tune using the different glasses.
  
  

Kazoo

• A kazoo can be made with simple items like a toilet roll tube, wax paper and an elastic band. Cut a square of wax paper that is 1 inch longer than the toilet roll tube and wrap it around one end. Use a rubber band to hold it in place. Ask the child to hum a tune, not using the kazoo. Then get him to hum the same tune at the same volume but through the kazoo (putting his mouth to the non-papered end). The sound waves will vibrate in the wax paper and amplify the sound produced by the child's voice. This gets the basic principles of sound amplification and vibrations across to the child in an easily understandable format.
  
  

Balloon Amplifier

• Blow up an ordinary balloon. If the child holds the balloon to her ear and flicks the opposite side lightly, she will hear a loud, amplified sound. This is because of the density of the air molecules within the balloon. As a result of the compression of molecules that occurs within a balloon, the sound carries more efficiently than in the ordinary air and the resulting noise will be louder than an equal strength tap on a table.
  
  

Does Music Affect Math Performance?

• This experiment looks into the effect different types of music have on academic performance. The study ideally requires three different groups of subjects, and three different math test papers (preferably equal in difficulty). Randomly assign the subjects into three groups, and get two different music CDs. Ideally, you can have two CDs from different genres, such as classical and heavy rock. Each of the three groups has a different musical stimulus, one has classical, another has rock and the final group has no music. Get them to complete as many questions from the test paper as they can with their musical stimulus playing. After the initial test, rotate the tests and music types so that each group tries to complete a test with different musical stimuli. Look at the results from the test and determine what effect, if any, music has on math ability. Choose a hypothesis before starting and see if it is correct.