Wisconsin 101 Our History in Objects
Sponsored by the UW-Madison Department of History

Graphophone Lesson Plan

Enduring Understanding

How do objects help us understand the story of Wisconsin? 

Essential Questions

  • Why do we save things?
  • What makes the things we save important?
  • What questions can objects help us answer?
  • How do we unlock the meanings of an object?

 

Wisconsin Standards for Social Studies

Social Studies Inquiry Practices and Processes

  • Develop claims using evidence to support reasoning. (Inq1)
  • Communicate and critique conclusions. (Inq4)

Behavioral

  • Investigate interactions between individuals and groups – Sociology. (BH2)
  • Assess the role that human behavior and cultures play in the development of social endeavors – Anthropology. (BH3)
  • Examine the progression of specific forms of technology and their influence within various societies. (BH4)

History

  • Connect past events, people, and ideas to the present, use different perspectives to draw conclusions, and suggest current implications. (Hist3)

 

Wisconsin Standards for Science

  • CC3.3-5: Students recognize natural objects and observable phenomena exist from the very small to the immensely large. They use standard units to measure and describe physical qualities such as mass, time, temperature, and volume.
  • CC4.3-5: Students understand a system is a group of related parts that make up a whole and can carry out functions its individual parts cannot. They also describe a system in terms of its components and their interactions.
  • CC6.3-5: Students understand different materials have different substructures, which can sometimes be observed; and substructures have shapes and parts that serve functions.
  • CC7.3-5: Students measure change in terms of differences over time, and observe that change may occur at different rates. They understand some systems appear stable, but over long periods of time they will eventually change.

Science and Engineering Practices

  • SEP1.A.3-5: Students ask questions that specify qualitative relationships. Ask questions that can be investigated and predict reasonable outcomes based on patterns such as cause and effect relationships.
  • SEP3.A.3-5: Students plan and carry out investigations that control variables and provide evidence to support explanations or design solutions.

 

Suggested Performance Task

Students can show achievement through completion of these outcomes:

  • Class discussion and activities on:
    • Activity #1, Creating Sound Waves
      • Student will learn how sound waves are made and travel. This experiment can occur in class or at home. Use the sheet below for students to conduct the experiment.
    • Activity #2, What’s that sound?
      • Do we always know what we are hearing? We hear sound everywhere we go, can you identify the sounds in this activity? Using the Power Point to conduct this activity.
      • Have students think about sounds they hear in their community. Have them create a soundscape of a cherished activity in their community. Use the activity sheet to guide the students in listening to the sounds that make up their community and activities.
      • Have a class share day for students to share their activity sounds.
    • Activity #3, Recording the Past
      • Have students select an individual who is older than them and talk to them about how sound/music was recorded and played. Each student will write a one page report on how sound/music was recorded and played. Students will need to take a picture of the recording/playback their subject used and if possible use it themselves.
      • Have students bring in their images of the recording devices and share what they learned.
    • Activity #4, Sound Recording Timeline
      • Using the handouts of images provided instruct the students to create a timeline by posting their given image in date order on the class wall. Have a class discussion on why they placed the images where they did based on what the students can see in the images and what they know about technology.
    • Activity #5, Sound Quality Past and Present
      • Have students listen to the recording of Alexander Graham Bell from the graphophone and then play a current audio recording. Have the students compare and contrast the quality and clarity of sound and what has helped make sound recording better. (A worksheet is below to help with the activity)

Screenshot of the Graphophone post and lesson plan document

Download Graphophone Lesson Plan & Post

Recording Timeline

What’s That Sound

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