This is the NASA eClips Best Practices guide for the Polyamide Foam Educator Guide.
In this activity, students will deepen their understanding of sound and its properties,
experiment to determine the most efficient sound
insulators, and design the most effective combination of materials to suppress sound.
For this activity you will need a cardboard, toilet paper tube, a tape measure or meter stick,
and some common household insulators such as bubble wrap, newspaper, a cotton sheet,
cotton quilt batting, and high density foam. You will also need the source of
a ticking sound; either a clock or a device with a ticking sound file.
Students should begin by documenting their predictions. They should list each insulator
in order from what they believe will be the worst insulator to what they believe will be the best.
Students should then insert one of the insulators into a cardboard tube. Then
with their tape measure or or meter stick laid out, they should stand next to the source of
the sound and hold the cardboard tube up to their ear. Then they should step away
from the source of the sound until they can no longer hear any sound.
Students should document their results by having each material listed and
then writing down how far they got from The Source before they could no longer
hear any sound noting that the shorter the distance the better the insulator.
Then students can test out different combinations
of materials to see if they make for better insulators.
Students can also test to see if inserting the same materials in a different way,
by folding or crumbling them, will make them a better insulator.
To learn more about insulators and polyamide foam check out the NASA eClips educator guide.