Acoustics as an intersectionality between Physics and Music: proposal for an Acoustic Physics teaching sequence based on musical elements in the light of the “three pedagogical moments”
Physics Teaching; Acoustic; didactic sequence; Three Pedagogical Moments; musical sound tubes.
As such a pervasive and engaging form of artistic expression, music has the potential
to stimulate emotions, memories, reflections, create connections. In the context of the
teaching of Physics at the high school level, music can act as an effective didactic tool
in the teaching and learning processes, capable of providing students with a dynamic
and pleasurable learning experience, and can therefore facilitate the understanding of
complex scientific concepts, commonly treated as very abstract or intangible by
students. In this work, we present a proposal for a didactic sequence for the teaching of
basic concepts of Acoustic Physics to second grade classes of High School, using the
"Three Pedagogical Moments" (3MP) as a theoretical-methodological subsidy. In this
sequence, music is not used as a mere filling of motivational space, but is, above all,
considered as an interface that, like Physics, has Acoustics as an intersectional field. In
addition, we propose, at the end of the teaching sequence, an activity of building sound
tubes from low-cost materials (cardboard, ruler, scissors and adhesive tape). Musical
sound tubes, as they are more widely disseminated, are sound instruments widely used
by music teachers, especially in ensemble practices, such as choirs and musical
initiation classes. These tubes are capable of individually producing sounds with certain
musical notes, depending on their length. A set of these tubes, easily found in the
physical or virtual market (Internet), forms a complete musical scale (including
accidents). However, its cost, in fact, can be an acquisitive obstacle for many schools
and teachers, especially in the public school scenario in our country. Our proposal is to
apply the concepts related to sound tubes (speed of sound, frequency, wavelength and
length of the tube) from the making of a complete musical scale of musical tubes. With
this, it will be possible to make some measurements and predictions, such as
calculating, through the sound tube equations, the speed of sound in air and the length
of other tubes, whether or not they belong to the same harmonic field. In this way, we
hope that students understand the model of Sound Tubes, as well as have some contact
with the notion of musical scales, thus realizing that the field of Acoustics is intimately
related to both Physics and Music.