, Black History Month is a great time to connect science to real people and real impact. Sound is an easy entry point because students can hear it, test it, and see it. Today focuses on acoustics and Black innovators who shaped how we communicate and how music shaped culture.
Sound and technology innovators
- James West who co-invented the foil electret microphone used in most modern phones
- Dr. Shirley Jackson whose research in theoretical physics supported technologies like touch tone phones and fiber optic communication
- Grandmaster Flash who applied scientific thinking to sound and transformed the turntable into an instrument
- Thomas Wiggins a musical prodigy who demonstrated extraordinary memory, pattern recognition, and precision in sound
Choose one person from this list and connect their work to waves, frequency, vibration, or communication.
Student Friendly Slides for Class
I made a student friendly version of this newsletter as Google Slides. I used Google Gemini to help rewrite it for the audience being students. Make a copy and use it with your students.
Make a copy of the presentationJames West and the Electret Microphone
You can show students that the technology they use every day has roots in Black innovation. James West held over 250 patents and his work on acoustics changed telecommunications. His microphone design required very little power, which made small and portable devices possible.
This is a strong example of how sound waves are converted into electrical signals. It gives students a concrete connection between physics and a real invention.
Learn about James WestMusic as Applied Physics
Music is a natural way to explore frequency, vibration, resonance, and amplitude. Black musicians have consistently experimented with sound to create new styles and new ways of communicating ideas and emotion.
Whether it is the resonance of a blues guitar or the bass driven sound of hip hop, artists are manipulating waves, frequency, and energy. This helps students see that science does not only live in labs. It also lives on stages and in studios.
Classroom Activity: The Acoustics Exploration
This activity integrates physics with history and student investigation. Students will build a simple instrument and use digital tools to make sound waves visible.
The Lesson: Frequency and Pitch
Sound travels in waves. The number of times a wave repeats in one second determines the pitch.
1. Vibration: All sound starts with something vibrating.
2. Frequency: Faster vibrations create a higher pitch.
3. Amplitude: Larger vibrations create a louder sound.
Step 1: Build
Students use recycled materials such as rubber bands, cardboard boxes, or plastic cups to create a simple instrument. They experiment with tension, length, or thickness to change the sound.
Step 2: Visualize
Students use the Oscillators tool or the Spectrogram. They play their instrument into the microphone and observe how the wave changes on the screen.
Step 3: Make a claim
Students post a photo of their instrument and a screenshot of their sound wave to a class Padlet or Slide deck.
- Make a claim about how changing the instrument affected the pitch or volume
- Use the wave image as evidence to support the claim
- Explain how this connects to how a microphone works
Step 4: Peer feedback
Students comment on two classmates' posts. Each comment includes one pattern they notice in the wave and one question about what was changed.
Evaluate
- How does frequency relate to pitch
- How does amplitude relate to volume
- How does a microphone change sound into a signal
, I hope this science of sound theme gives students a new way to hear both physics and Black history.