
I came to realize the power and presence of sound when I listened to an audio walk – a podcast that guides you through a specific place and tells you a story set there. It made me feel like I was physically somewhere else. The audio was recorded using a special technique called binaural sound, which records the array of everyday sounds in three dimensions. In my case, I could close my eyes and feel like I was walking down a crowded London, England street – just through sound.
After my first audio walk, I became deeply curious about how those sounds were able to make me feel so strongly like I was in a different place. Why was it that I felt the urge to look behind my shoulder when I heard a snippet of a conversation that I knew must have been in the recording and not in my physical environment? And how could I learn to listen to and wonder about the everyday sounds of my own environment that I had so often tuned out? Those same sounds of footsteps, conversations, and honking cars grabbed my attention so strongly in the recording, but averted my thoughts when they were happening around me in my own life. I began to actively engage with scientific aspects of sound, recording technology, and ecology in my own creative practice and studies. This sense of sonic wonder, which started as an aesthetic appreciation and led to the pursuit of scientific explanations (Stolberg, 2008), inspired me to create a science unit on sound.
3-part lesson overview
This series of inquiry-based science lessons delves into the fascinating world of sound, offering students the awe-inspiring experience of being transported by it. Focusing on the “big ideas” of matter and energy, the lessons explore the properties, sources, and reception of sound. Since sounds exist within specific environments, the lessons also touch on life systems by encouraging students to closely listen to and record human, non-human, and technological sounds in both urban and natural settings. Through this process, students will not only learn how sound is transmitted and received, but also develop the ability to listen closely to the sounds around them and use these observations to ask questions about their environment.
These lessons emphasize that sound is a form of energy generated by vibrations. Students will discover that sound travels in waves through a medium such as air, and will gain an understanding of how these waves can reflect off objects before being processed by our brains via our ears. Alongside these scientific concepts, the lessons aim to instill the same sense of wonder I experienced when I first began to really pay attention to the diverse sounds of natural and urban environments.
Lesson 1: The sounds that surround us inside
The unit begins with a discussion and set of in-class experiments exploring how sound travels from its point of creation to its point of reception. Students will begin to understand that sound is a form of energy that takes place in a medium by being challenged to pay close attention to the sounds of the classroom. This lesson is intended to spark curiosity for future lessons, such as how we can pay close attention to sounds in different environments, and how our brains might interpret sounds.
Some common sound misconceptions
Elementary students may have naïve theories or misconceptions about the nature of sound: some may believe sound to be a physical entity, an electric current, or a transverse wave that looks like an ocean wave rather than a longitudinal wave (Veith, 2023; Eshach & Schwartz, 2006). There are some great explanations on how sound works from this Brittanica Kids article on sound which can help with an understanding of how sound works. Each of these lessons will provide explanations so that you can work through the misconceptions with your students.
Lesson 2: Seeking sounds in our neighbourhood
The second lesson takes the form of a sound walk where students practice using specific language to describe a sound in their environment. They start to understand how our reception of sound is impacted by the different surfaces around us, which introduces the concept of acoustics.
In this lesson, students will learn that sounds travel differently depending on their environment and the materials and surfaces around them. They will also learn that sound is a form of energy that takes place in a medium. Finally, they will listen closely to an outdoor environment and pick out different sounds and their sources.
A walking curriculum
This lesson draws on walking and environmental practices and curriculum that help students develop a keener understanding of their local environments (Judson, 2018; Romey, 1972) and grounds these lessons in the lives and experiences of students. The Hamilton Perambulatory Unit has many examples of creative walking and observation practices on their website.
Lesson 3: Making sense of sounds
The third lesson focuses on our interpretation of sounds, covering the process in which sound is transformed from a wave to an electric pulse via our ears. By using binaural soundscapes, students will begin to think about the differences between physical and recorded sound, creating an opportunity for students to experience spatial soundscapes (Ward, 2009).
In this lesson, students will know that our outer ears collect sound waves into the inner ear, which translates sound waves into electric currents which are interpreted by our brain. They will also understand that both live and recorded sounds make use of vibrations. Finally, they will be able to describe how a sound makes them feel and identify different qualities of a sound.
Binaural Sound 101
Binaural recordings capture sound as your ears hear them – in three dimensions! Sounds captured this way have a very specific spatiality to them, so you may feel like you are standing in the middle of the recording environment. You can experience this sonic transportation by listening to binaural recordings from Lang Elliott’s music of nature and urban binaural recordings from Zenodo.
More lesson ideas: Connecting to natural curiosity
Exploring sound led me to generate more questions about what could be learned about a place and its history through its sounds. I’ve also begun to think about how one could listen and attune to the presence of natural life in a place. Paying close attention to the sounds of a place can lead to further connections with environmental and Indigenous inquiry (Anderson et al., 2017) or social studies explorations such as the stories of neighbourhoods or the history of our ever-changing relationship with the environment. The Natural Curiosity website has many examples of what this can look like in the classroom, including a self-guided learning series on their environmental education framework that is deepened by Indigenous perspectives, and a webinar on connecting Indigenous stories of place to the curriculum.
Author

Thomas Sayers
Student Teacher, Master of Arts in Child Study and Education Program (OISE/U of T)
References
- Eshach, H., & Schwartz, J. L. (2006). Sound Stuff? Naïve materialism in middle‐school students’ conceptions of sound. International Journal of Science Education, 28(7), 733–764.https://doi.org/10.1080/09500690500277938
- Judson, G. (2018). A walking curriculum: Evoking wonder and developing sense of place (K-12).
- Romey, W. D. (1972). Environmental studies (ES) project brings openness to biology classrooms. The American Biology Teacher, 34(6), 322–328. https://doi.org/10.2307/4443973
- Stolberg, T. L. (2008). W(h)ither the sense of wonder of pre-service primary teachers’ when teaching science?: A preliminary study of their personal experiences. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24(8), 1958–1964. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2008.05.005
- Veith, S. I. (2023). What’s the matter with sound? How primary school students perceive the nature of sound. Research in Science Education, 53(5), 919–934. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-023-10108-7
- Ward, K. S. (2009). Musical soundscape: Teaching the concepts of R. Murray Schafer to elementary students. Canadian Music Educator, 50(4), 40–42.
- Anderson, D., Comay, J., & Chiarotto, L. (2017). Natural curiosity: A resource for educators (2nd ed.). The Laboratory School at the Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study.