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The major goal is for students to understand how we actually hear sound.

1. Students will be able to identify the inside parts of the ear.
   
2. Students will be able to describe how sound travels through their ears.

Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Standard 4: Science
Substandard 1: The Living Environment

Teacher Materials:
• 20 copies of "Inside My Ear" Worksheet (labeled ear diagram)
  
• 1 larger copy of "Inside My Ear" Worksheet
  
• 1 transparency of "Inside My Ear" Worksheet
  
• 8 different color washable markers
  
• chart paper

Student Materials:
• 8 different color crayons

Start the lesson by asking students to think about what we learned about sound already. What causes sound? Students should respond with: Vibrations cause things to make sounds. All sounds are caused by vibrations. Ask key question: How do we hear sounds?

1. First, tell students that we will be learning how sound travels through our ears and what happens to make us hear the sound. Tape up the larger copy of the "Inside My Ear" Worksheet. Tell students that this is the inside of all your ears.
2. Next, introduce the parts of the ear. Go through each part and have the students say the parts of the ear aloud one-by-one.
3. Then, explain how sound travels through the ear. Demonstrate a sound by banging a tuning fork on a block of wood. First, the sound travels through the air. Then, the sound hits the outer ear and goes through the ear canal. Next, the sound hits the eardrum, which causes it to vibrate. This vibration travels through the three bones and into the cochlea. The cochlea takes the sound to the nerves. Finally, the nerves take the sound to your brain, which allows you to hear the sound. Inform the students that all of what you just described happens in less than one second. Ask students to think about this and listen. Bang the tuning fork on the block of wood again. Ask the students: How long did it take you to hear the sound?
4. Next, tell the students that the semicircular canals are used for balancing and the eustachian tube is connected to your nose and throat. Also, inform students that the smallest bone in your body is located in your ear - one of the three bones is the smallest bone in our bodies. Tell students that this is why our ears are so sensitive and we must take care of them. We should not listen to loud music all the time, because we can damage our hearing.
5. Pick on students to have them retell how sound travels through your ears.
6. Tell students that we will now color the different parts of the ear. But, you must color each part of the ear a different color so we can see all of the parts. So, how many different color crayons will we need?
7. Pass out the "Inside My Ear" worksheets and have students begin coloring. The teacher should color in transparency on overhead so that students have a model.

• What causes sounds?
  
• How do we hear sounds?
  
• How many parts do we have inside our ears?
  
• How does sound travel through our ears?

After the students finish coloring, ask students key question: How does sound travel through our ears? Pick on students and have them explain how sound travels through the ear. This will review the concept one final time.

For a gifted student, the teacher can give the student the "Inside My Ear" worksheet without the labeled parts of the ear. The student can be challenged by asking him or her to label the parts of the ear from what they remember during the lesson. This can be done while the other students are coloring the parts of the ear.

As a homework writing assignment, the students can write out how sound travels through their ears.

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