Listen Up!

With the artsy and musical spirit of March, we were inspired to hold a workshop that combined both creative tunes and STEM experiments– so, in both West Valley and Cambrian Branch Libraries, we presented our Listen Up! lab that aimed to encourage musical creativity and interest in STEM by constructing instruments, displaying the power of sound waves, and making DIY telephones.

Participants started with nothing but two cups, some string, and two paper clips, and were able to build sound-transmitory devices from scratch, where the materials provided were assembled to make telephones. Then, we demonstrated how sound waves affect movement by placing rice grains on a speaker blasting music, showing to our students how nothing but music could send rice grains flying.

To end the lab, we guided participants through making their own panpipes with nothing but straws and tape, where just cutting straws at different lengths could produce different notes when blown into. Needless to say, our March workshops were filled with music, and anyone who passed by could have taken us for an orchestra. We thoroughly enjoyed our time spent on encouraging love for STEAM, and we look forward to our next month’s labs!