Build a Band

The Project:

In this project we had to build a band in our group of three. Each person would get to play a specific type of instrument. A chime, wind, and string. A chime instrument creates noises by getting hit. A wind instrument creates noises through your mouth. And a string instrument creates noises with pulling of strings. Our chime instrument was a xylophone that we made out of wood, screws, and rubber bands, and the xylophone has eight keys (for a full octave). Our wind instrument was a pan flute made out of big straws and tape. Lastly our string instrument was a harp with eight strings, we made it out of a PVC pipe, wood, strings, screws, glue, and tape. And at the end of the project we had to perform a song with our completed band. And the song we ended up performing was our own physics remix of Yellow Submarine by the Beatles.

Engineer and Design Cycle:

1. Identifying the need: We needed to create a band of three instruments. Wind, chime, and string. All instruments must be able to play different eight notes (a full octave). And at the end we as a group must perform a song.

2. Researching the problem: Our problem was that we needed to create the instruments out of provided materials that will pass all requirements.

3. Develop possible solutions: Our solution was to ask other people what they were doing and we looked up online various ways to make the instruments.

4. Select most promising solution: Our easiest and most promising solution was to create a harp, xylophone, and pan-flute.

5. Construct prototype: Before we started building we created a very detailed blueprint of the instruments.

6. Test and Evaluate the prototype: After doing this we created the instruments and build them we tested to see if the notes were about accurate.

7. Communicate the design: When doing this we found a few flaws in the design so we fixed it.

8. Redesign: When finding the flaws in the instruments, we fixed them. For instance, when first making our xylophone we found that when we made the parts of the xylophone you hit, and connected them, the tighter and less "wiggle room" the piece had to move made it quieter.

9. Repeat: Our repeat was checking every instrument over and over, and fixing them and fixing.

Learning Targets:

Frequency-

• Frequency is the rate at which a vibration occurs that constitutes a wave, either in a material (as in sound waves), or in an electromagnetic field (as in radio waves and light), usually measured per second.

Wavelength-

• Wave length is the distance between successive crests of a wave, especially points in a sound wave or electromagnetic wave.

Wave Speed-

• Wave speed is the speed at which a was travels. The most commonly used wave speed is the speed of visible light, an electromagnetic wave. And that means that its speed can depend only on the medium.

Amplitude-

• Amplitude is the maximum extent of a vibration or oscillation, measured from the position of equilibrium.

Transverse wave-

• Transverse waves are waves that carry light waves, waves on the electromagnetic spectrum, and these waves can travel through space and through a vacuum. These waves can do not require a medium to travel, and these waves look more like ocean waves than anything else.

Longitudinal wave-

• Longitudinal waves are waves that carry sound. These waves cannot travel through space and require a medium to travel. These waves use compression's and refraction's to move. These waves are represented through lines of different distances, or zigzags or different distances.

Electromagnetic Spectrum-

• The Electromagnetic Spectrum is the range of wavelengths or frequencies over which electromagnetic radiation extends.

This is our Instrument Description Page:

Reflection:

I struggled with this project slightly because although I play piano, that was not an instrument that I could make for this project. And I didn't understand too much about the music notes, while other kids did, so to improvise for that I made my instrument a pan flute because it's a simple instrument to play and it wouldn't be time consuming to make like the harp was for us. Anyways, I think my conscientious learner skills were pretty good during this project, my team and I were very on task and organized. I also think I did well with critical thinking during this project, because of my instrument choice.

Two subjects I could work on are collaboration and communication skills. I struggled in communication by sometimes getting off task and I didn't ask my teammates what they needed to be assisted with at times. And I could work more on collaboration as well because my team was not as involved with my instrument, and because I finished my instrument so early it felt like I didn't have much to do, or much more to contribute, which caused me to want to create and edit our video with our song. But overall I really enjoyed making instruments and playing music.