How do phones work?

How do phones work?
Lesson narration:
English Spanish
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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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Lesson narration:
English Spanish

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

Extend this lesson

Writing

Writing

Here are some writing prompts to help students reflect on the mini-lesson. Feel free to copy and paste them into an assignment.

  1. How do phones work?
  2. What did this lesson make you curious about? What other questions do you have about phones?

Activity

Activity

Bonus Activity: A phone lets you talk to a friend who is far away. On a smartphone you can even see that person! But think about the things you can’t do over the phone. You can’t give your friend a hug. You can’t smell the cookies your friend just baked. Think like an inventor! Can you create a new kind of phone that lets you do these things? Describe or draw a picture of your invention.
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Waves Tx Lesson 7: How do phones work?

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