Any ordinary household materials appropriate and safe for school use. This is a performance assessment that is to be used at the completion of a unit on pitch and sound.
Students create their own musical instruments that are to be entered in a fictitious radio contest.
Students should have a basic understanding about what factors cause the pitches of different materials to change. This assignment can be done individually, or in groups of 2-4 stud ents working together. The majority of the work is done at home, and then presented to the class. The contest is to create a musical instrument that can play at least four different pitches. Each contestant must also submit a written explanation of how and why their instrument works and is able to change pitches.