Your sense of hearing depends upon tiny hairs deep inside your ear and if you lose these hairs, you lose your hearing. Here, groups explore hearing through the decibel measurement of common sounds. As a class, participants discuss hearing issues before teams explore hearing aids and how they work. 

Concepts

bioengineering, hearing impaired, hearing, sound

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Additional Tags

science

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Instructional Ideas

• Activity fits in unit on body systems or on engineering and design
• Place students in teams before class to maximize hands-on time

Classroom Considerations

• Materials include a decibel meter, batteries, resistors, voice recorder, capacitor, amplifier, speaker, and others; check with physics teachers and others to gather materials

Pros

• Includes background information for teachers covering ear structure, hearing aids, and electrical components
• Provides photos to show correct setup for stations

Cons

• None

Common Core

RST.6-8.3