A brilliant physics project to end the year on a good note

May 3, 2010 • Esther Matveychuk  
Filed under Features

The freshmen Physics classes have learned exciting concepts throughout the year, but with the start of the second semester, Mr. Willis and Ms. Hughes had a creative, long-term project in mind. The project would not only help the students’ grades, but give them a chance to show off their amazing skills and talent in a musical and artful form. This project deals with the creation of each student’s very own instrument.

The project was first introduced to the students in early January. They were encouraged to put their best effort into the newly assigned project until the presentations at the end of March. While in class, Ms. Hughes and Mr. Willis taught lessons dealing with sound waves, frequency, wavelengths, resonance, and a variety of other topics. This cumulative project reinforced the teachers’ objectives, and the students actively use and apply what they learned. Teachers gave students the option of either creating a physics video that explained one of these areas of physics that they studied in class or build a musical instrument from scratch. The majority chose the latter.    

As in any project, it took a significant amount of effort on each student’s part. And, of course, problems arose for each group. Some didn’t have good structural foundations in music or video production, while other students faced problems with their actual instruments: finding cracks in their instruments, researching the wrong thing, starting over multiple times (in which case students found back-up plans as a “would-have-been-useful” thing), measuring with the utmost accuracy, and then resisting the actual urge to chuck the instruments against the wall if something went wrong. In the words of several students, “it was VERY time consuming.”

There was a large mix of instruments created. From PVC-pipe flutes, harps, guitars, dulcimers, and cellos to the ever present xylophone, there was no end to the creative choices that students made. But as each project developed, so did the expense for some students. In the case of those who chose string instruments, the actual strings turned out to be very expensive, especially for those who snapped a few in the stringing process.

The best part for all of the students was finishing. Their project started off with something as plain as a piece of PVC pipe and then evolved into something beautiful: a musical instrument. It was an absolute thrill to be able to play a scale or even a piece of music on the instrument. Setting aside all the problems, struggles, and time used, students actually saw an amazing creation in their finished project. For some students, the only word they could manage to get out was “wow.”

In the words of Taryn Connelly, who created a PVC pipe harp, “troubleshooting is key, and so is time management. It was a lot of hard work, but overall it was pretty interesting, and I couldn’t wait to see how some of the other instruments turned out!”

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