Warning: I drove my cat to distraction preparing these links. He couldn’t figure out where the birds and insects were coming from. 🙂
Ever wondered, “What animal is making that sound?” Stop by the educators page at Western Soundscape Archive. Take a look at the Animal Sounds Bingo lesson while you are there. To get to the extensive store of sound recordings, hit the “home” tab at the top of the educator page. When the home page loads, you should see a search box and the option for pull down menus to find the sounds you are interested in.
The Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology’s Macaulay Library also has archives and more. You can listen to and download backyard bird sounds. The Physics of Animal Behavior section isn’t finished for middle grade, but the elementary lessons look good. You can also learn how to make your own recordings (which looks fun and expensive).
****The Wild Music traveling exhibition has a lot of amazing activities, like build a soundscape. Your children could spend hours here. Compare your hearing range with that of other animals. Look for activities under the “About Sound” category. Awesome!
Last summer, I put up some posts about music and sound:
Take Time to Hear the Insect Sing
To find out more about the physics of sounds:
Science of sound video from a science museum. if you frequent science museums, you have probably seen some of this before.
I had to turn the volume way down on this one because it drove my cat nuts. It is very cool to watch, though.
Hope you enjoyed this. If you would like to see more, please let me know.
