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Weekend Science Fun: Science of Sound

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

Category:  Summer sounds

To find out more about the physics of sounds:

Science of Sound Activities

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.

Bug of the Week: Termites

Look what you can find under a rock in the desert:

termites

Do you know what they are?

termites2

These are termites.

Most of us probably only think of termites as pests that eat our homes, but in reality termites are part of nature’s clean up crew. They are some of the few organisms that, in partnership with mutualistic gut fauna, are able to digest the cellulose component of wood.

These were apparently on the move, because they were gone when I checked the next day.

Have you ever seen termites?

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