How do phones work?

How do phones work?
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What would happen if you pushed these keys on a phone’s keypad? (Hint: This is way too long to be a phone number!)
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Each key makes a different sound. If the keys are pushed in this order, the phone plays a famous song called "Frère Jacques."
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One musician discovered that the keys on old calculators also make musical sounds—and they played something amazing!
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Sometimes angry people honk their car horns. What an annoying sound! Can you think of a way to make that noise into music?
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When you lock a car by pushing a button on the key, the horn honks. These guys used that to play a song.
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Cars aren’t the only vehicles with horns. The captains of these cruise ships teamed up to slowly play “Happy Birthday"!
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People play harps by plucking the strings with their fingers, like this. But no one is playing this harp. Why is it making sounds?
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Notice the grass and leaves moving in the wind. The wind moves the strings of the harp, too, making the sound you hear!
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When wind blows, parts of this bridge move, just like the strings of the harp. That makes a strange humming sound.
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Close your eyes and listen. Some people are playing a song by hitting things with hammers. What do you think they are hitting?
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These special rocks ring like bells when hit. These people found rocks that make the sounds in "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."
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For thousands of years, the Raglai people of Vietnam have been using ringing rocks to make musical instruments like this one.
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Suppose someone gave you a pile of plastic tubes and asked you to make music with them. What would you do?
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Here’s one way to do it! Short tubes make high sounds; long tubes make low sounds. Listen for the high and low sounds in the songs!
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Overview

In this mini-lesson, students learn about early communication and how messages were sent in years past. They use that information to help them understand how telephones work!

Exploration

5 mins

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Writing

Activity

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