(upbeat music) - [Hosts] This is in "In Tune".

(whoosh sound) - You can't have sound (cymbal clanging) without vibration, and that is something we're gonna be discussing a lot on our show.

- When you close a book, (book thudding) pop a balloon, (balloon popping) play a banjo, (banjo music) vibrations are causing the sound that you hear.

- That's right, and you guys, all of our educators out there, you can help your kids become sound scientists.

And our friend Mrs. P. is gonna a little bit more about that now (whoosh sound) Because we wanna give you a real world example of this, and I am not a teacher, nor do I have a class, we have turned to our amazing resident educator, Miss Samantha Puterbaugh, right?

- Right.

- You're a music teacher.

Hmm hmm.

This is what you do.

What grades?

- I live and breathe the kindergarten through third grade and I have 650 students that I teach every week.

(Jake laughs) - That's, that's amazing.

That's it.

650.

You got a 650 person audience every week.

That's a lot of pressure.

- It is.

- All right, well today we're talking to kids about sound and vibration because (paper crinkling) vibration creates sound.

But like I said, I'm not an educator.

Give us some examples to pass on to our teacher friends of activities they could do with their kids to challenge 'em in this area or show 'em how it works.

- Yeah, if you want to have children experience sound and vibration in the real world, my favorite thing to do is to go outside.

We can do so much outside.

And find a stick.

Use your hands, use a rock, and go to the playground, and touch the playground.

Feel and hear all the different sounds that that playground can create.

You can go to the swings, you can go to the slide, and just tap and and click on things.

And there's so many different materials.

You have plastic, you have metal and there's so much that they can hear and see, and see if you can create music from that.

What can you play?

Can you play rhythms?

Can you make a steady beat?

There's so much that the children can do and explore out on a playground to hear sound and vibration in the world.

- I wouldn't even have thought of that.

I wouldn't even thought, like as you're talking, I'm thinking, oh, the monkey bars are metal.

If you held onto them with one hand and hit 'em with a stick, you'd feel that vibration and hear that vibration.

- Exactly.

- Amazing.

Now, what about arts and crafts?

You got any arts and crafts examples?

- Absolutely, there's so many things online that you can find and Pinterest is your friend of course, but there's lots of little activities.

Taking an empty tissue box and wrapping the rubber bands around it and plucking those rubber bands, hearing the vibrations.

You might find different sizes of rubber bands.

That'll give you even more depth in your pitches.

Making egg shakers from toilet paper tubes.

There's so much out there that kids can do to make music at home.

It doesn't have to be expensive or fancy.

- So, really when we get into sound and vibration, it's not only a music lesson, but it is a science lesson as well, correct?

- Exactly.

It's very cross-curricular.

We can ask children, and I usually ask my first graders, let's see if we can experience sound with our own body and touch your throat.

Because when we speak and when we sing, our vocal chords are moving against each other, and that's how we create our vibration because we are also an instrument.

Voice, the vocal chords, are an instrument.

It doesn't have to just be the clarinet, the tuba, all of that.

- Ah.

See, you can feel it.

Feel it move.

That's good stuff.

- It is.

- It's good stuff.

You gotta remind those kids this is science as well.

We're creating science and music Thank you again, Sam.

- Absolutely.

Thank you.

(whoosh sound) - We'd love to see your students become sound scientists and explore the concept of sound and vibration in the world around them.

It can be a lot of fun.

- Oh yeah, it can.

(light music)