Dancing Snakes. An Experiment with Sounds.

🎂 4 + years ⏱️ 15 min 📍 Everywhere ⭐ easy

Here you will create a stage for little snakes that dance all by themselves when you sing the right sounds to them. Sounds are not just noises; they are waves that travel through the air and make things vibrate. That's exactly what you will take advantage of today. You will build a dance floor that can 'hear' sounds and let little snakes dance on it!

What you'll need

Bowl
Cling film
Tape
Pipe cleaners
Your voice

How it works

Take the bowl and stretch a large piece of cling film over it. The film must be very tight. Imagine you are making a drum. If it’s not tight enough, use tape to secure it around the edges of the bowl.
Now wrap a pipe cleaner around your finger to create a spiral snake. Carefully pull the pipe cleaner off so it keeps its shape. If you like, you can stick small eyes on your snakes.
Gently place your pipe cleaner snakes on the stretched cling film. Now comes the exciting part: stand directly in front of the bowl and make different sounds with your voice. Try long 'Aaaaaa', 'Eeeee', 'Iiiii', 'Ooooo', or 'Uuuuuu'. What happens?
Depending on how high or low your voice is, the snakes will start to dance! Some sounds make them dance more than others, give it a try!
When you speak or sing, sound waves are created. These make the cling film vibrate. The snakes lie on it and move along. Does it also work with music or clapping? What happens if you use a bigger bowl or stretch the film tighter?