Monday’s hands-on science program, “The Science Behind Recording Music,” challenged tweens to come up with several iterations of a gramophone that could play the sound stored on a vinyl record with\u00a0only their hands to power it.\u00a0First tweens learned about the history of sound recording and its great inventors, then we started spinning records of our own. \u00a0We made a gramophone out of a tin can, aluminum foil, and a pin, and lowered the pointy end of the pin onto the record while we spun it to see if we could hear sound. \u00a0The pin should pick up the vibrations from the groove of the record and transfer those vibrations to a diaphragm (the tinfoil) and then amplify them (with the cylinder or funnel). \u00a0We tried\u00a0latex instead of tinfoil, and funnels instead of cans, and finally a simple paper cone (which was the lightest version and therefore the most effective!). \u00a0Kids had to write down observations and notes about how each machine worked and rate its effectiveness in loudness and clarity.<\/p>\n
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