On September 16th 2019, the PSU ASA did another outreach event in partnership with the Eberly College of Science – this time, Think Outside the Beaker! We were able to talk and present about acoustics with 9 local middle school students. The volunteering grad students prepared 4 different stations for the kids to learn from:

  • Gary and Eric’s station was based around musical acoustics and how sounds are generated from various types of instruments. Straws were turned into instruments, boxes were turned into resonators and excited by plucked rubber band strings, and Gary brought his acoustic guitar.
  • Sean and Molly’s station had a presentation about waves and demos with Slinkys. They discussed applications of acoustics to Earth Science – we can learn about the interior of the earth through vibration and earthquakes. Acoustics is not always about audible sound!
  • Keagan and Nathan’s station had the students building paper plate loudspeakers and learning about transducers!
  • Nick and Zane’s station brought in a binaural head to monitor the amount of sound entering its ears. They talked about how the ear works, and demonstrated both how loud of sounds we are typically exposed to and the importance/effectiveness of hearing protection.

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