Implementing
the Module
The five lessons in this module are designed to
tists. They are introduced to the concepts of loud-
be taught in sequence for one to two weeks (as a
ness and pitch, and they learn how these concepts
supplement to the standard curriculum) or as
relate to hearing and hearing loss in humans ( Do
individual lessons that support or enhance your
You Hear What I Hear? ). Students are then intro-
treatment of specific concepts in middle school
duced to the hearing pathway and the concept of
science. The following pages offer general sug-
transduction in A Black Box Problem: How Do I
gestions about using these materials in the class-
Hear? In the final lesson, students evaluate the risk room. You will find specific suggestions in the
of noise-induced hearing loss for fictitious individ-
procedures provided for each lesson.
uals. They also consider whether their own lifestyle
places them at risk ( Too Loud, Too Close, Too Long).
What Are the Goals of the Module?
The table on pages 8 and 9 illustrates the scientific
How Your Brain Understands What Your Ear Hears
content and conceptual flow of the five lessons.
is designed to help students achieve the following
major goals associated with scientific literacy:
How Does the Module Correlate with the
• to understand a set of basic scientific principles
National Science Education Standards?
related to hearing and communication and
How Your Brain Understands What Your
their relationship to human health;
Ear Hears supports teachers in their
• to experience the process of scientific inquiry
efforts to reform science education in
and develop an enhanced understanding of the
the spirit of the National Research
nature and methods of science; and
Council’s 1996 National Science Educa-
• to recognize the role of science in society and
tion Standards ( NSES). The content is explicitly the relationship between basic science and
standards based. Each time a standard is addressed
human health.
in a lesson, an icon appears in the margin and the
applicable standard is identified. The Content Stan-
What Are the Science Concepts
dards chart on pages 6 and 7 lists the specific con-
and How Are They Connected?
tent standards that this module addresses.
The lessons are organized into a conceptual frame-
work that allows students to move from what they
Teaching Standards
already know about hearing, some of which may
The suggested teaching strategies in all of the les-
be incorrect, to gaining a scientific perspective on
sons support teachers as they work to meet the
the nature of hearing and communication. Stu-
teaching standards outlined in the National Sci-
dents learn about hearing and human communica-
ence Education Standards. This module helps
tion by investigating the diversity of languages and
teachers of science plan an inquiry-based science
their acquisition ( Getting the Message). Students program by providing short-term objectives for
then explore the multisensory nature of communi-
students. It also includes planning tools such as
cation and classify the types of sounds in their
the Science Content and Conceptual Flow of the
environment ( Sound Communication). Students
Lessons table and the Suggested Timeline for
proceed to learn how sound is studied by scien-
teaching the module. Teachers can use this mod-
5
How Your Brain Understands What Your Ear Hears
Content Standards: Grades 5–8
Standard A: As a result of their activities in grades 5–8, Correlation to How Your
all students should develop
Brain Understands What
Your Ear Hears
Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
• Identify questions that can be answered through scientific investigations.
Lesson 4
• Use appropriate tools and techniques to gather, analyze, and interpret Lesson 3
data.
• Develop descriptions, explanations, predictions, and models using Lessons 3, 4
evidence.
• Think critically and logically to make the relationships between Lessons 3, 4, 5
evidence and explanations.
• Recognize and analyze alternative explanations and predictions.
Lessons 1, 2, 3, 4
• Communicate scientific procedures and explanations.
Lessons 2, 4, 5
• Use mathematics in all aspects of scientific inquiry.
Lessons 3, 5
Understandings about scientific inquiry
• Different kinds of questions suggest different kinds of scientific investi-All Lessons
gations. Some investigations involve observing and describing objects, organisms, or events; some involve collecting specimens; some involve experiments; some involve seeking more information; some involve discovery of new objects; and some involve making models.
• Mathematics is important in all aspects of scientific inquiry.
Lessons 3, 5
Standard B: As a result of their activities in grades 5–8, all students should develop an understanding of
Transfer of energy
• Energy is a property of many substances and is associated with heat, Lesson 4
light, electricity, mechanical motion, sound, nuclei, and the nature of a chemical. Energy is transferred in many ways.
Standard C: As a result of their activities in grades 5–8, all students should develop an understanding of
Structure and function in living systems
• Living systems at all levels of organization demonstrate the comple-Lesson 4
mentary nature of structure and function. Important levels of organization for structure and function include cells, organs, tissues, organ systems, whole organisms, and ecosystems.
• Specialized cells perform specialized functions in multicellular organisms.
Lesson 4
Groups of specialized cells cooperate to form a tissue, such as muscle.
Different tissues are in turn grouped together to form larger functional units, called organs. Each type of cell, tissue, and organ has a distinct structure and set of functions that serve the organism as a whole.
6
• Disease is a breakdown in structures or functions of an organism.
Lessons 3, 4, 5
Some diseases are the result of intrinsic failures of the system. Others are the result of damage by infection by other organisms.
Regulation and behavior
• Behavior is one kind of response an organism can make to an internal Lessons 1, 2, 5
or environmental stimulus.
Standard E: As a result of their activities in grades 5–8, all students should develop
Understandings about science and technology
• Science and technology are reciprocal. Science helps drive technology.
Lessons 3, 4, 5
Technology is essential to science, because it provides instruments and techniques that enable observations of objects and phenomena that are otherwise unobservable.
• Technological solutions have intended benefits and unintended conse-Lesson 5
quences.
Standard F: As a result of their activities in grades 5–8, all students should develop an understanding of
Personal health
• The potential for accidents and the existence of hazards imposes the Lesson 5
need for injury prevention. Safe living involves the development and use of safety precautions and the recognition of risk in personal decisions.
Risks and benefits
• Risk analysis considers the type of hazard and estimates the number of Lesson 5
people who might be exposed and the number likely to suffer consequences. The results are used to determine the options for reducing or eliminating risks.
• Important personal and social decisions are made based on percep-Lesson 5
tions of benefits and risks.
Science and technology in society
• Technology influences society through its products and processes. Tech-Lessons 4, 5
nology influences the quality of life and the ways people act and interact.
Standard G: As a result of their activities in grades 5–8, all students should develop an understanding of
Science as a human endeavor
• Science requires different abilities, depending on such factors as the All Lessons
field of study and type of inquiry. Science is very much a human endeavor, and the work of science relies on basic human qualities, such as reasoning, insight, energy, skills, and creativity.
Nature of science
• Scientists formulate and test their explanations of nature using obser-Lessons 3, 4
vation, experiments, and theoretical and mathematical models.
7
Implementing the Module
How Your Brain Understands What Your Ear Hears
Science Content and Conceptual Flow of the Lessons
Lesson and Learning Focus*
Topics Covered and Major Concepts
1: Getting the Message
Distinguishing between hearing and communication.
• Hearing involves sound, while understanding involves the brain.
Engage: Students become en-
gaged in the study of hearing, com-
Relating the concept of critical period to language acquisition.
munication, and understanding.
• There is a critical period during which language acquisition takes place.
2: Sound Communication
Communication is multisensory.
• The most effective communication is multisensory.
Explore: Students watch and listen
• Sound is a powerful and important means of communication.
to human speech. They explore the
multisensory nature of human
Sounds can be environmental, voiced, and musical.
communication. The Explore phase
• There are three types of sound: environmental, voiced, and gives students a common set of
musical.
experiences upon which to begin
building their understanding.
3: Do You Hear What I Hear?
Characteristics of loudness and pitch.
• Loudness and pitch are distinct properties of sound.
Explore/Explain: Students gener-
• Loudness is related to the amplitude of the sound wave; ate a hearing-response curve.
pitch is related to its frequency.
They also listen to recordings that
simulate hearing loss. Students
The human hearing response and hearing loss.
express their understanding of the
• Humans do not hear all pitches equally well.
relationships among loudness,
• The loudness of very-low- and very-high-pitched sounds
pitch, and hearing.
must be increased for them to be detected.
• A healthy sense of hearing is characterized by the recognition of a wide spectrum of pitches.
• Hearing loss may involve failure to detect specific pitches.
4: A Black Box Problem: How
The components of the hearing pathway and their functions.
Do I Hear?
• The hearing pathway processes sound in a series of steps that involve different structures within the ear.
Elaborate: Students deepen
• Hearing requires the passage of vibrational energy from one their understanding of hearing
medium to another, as well as its conversion to electrical by investigating the parts of the
energy (in the form of nerve impulses).
hearing pathway and their
• Damage to specific parts of the hearing pathway results in functions.
predictable changes in hearing.
The process of transduction.
• Transduction is the conversion of vibrational energy into electrical energy that occurs in the cochlea.
8
5: Too Loud, Too Close, Too
Understanding occurs in the brain.
Long
• Understanding what one hears occurs in the brain.
• Damage to specific parts of the hearing pathway results in
Elaborate/Evaluate: Students
predictable changes in hearing.
reflect on what they learned in the
module in the context of noise-
Characteristics, causes, and prevention of noise-induced
induced hearing loss (NIHL). They
hearing loss.
evaluate risks for NIHL for several
• Noise-induced hearing loss leads to an inability to hear and fictitious individuals as well as for
understand speech and other sounds at normal loudness
themselves and recommend ways
levels.
to reduce these risks.
• Noise-induced hearing loss can be temporary or permanent.
• Noise-induced hearing loss can result from a one-time exposure to extremely loud sound, repeated or long-term expo-
sure to loud sound, or extended exposure to moderate
sound.
• Noise-induced hearing loss can happen to people of all ages.
• The best way to protect one’s hearing is to avoid loud noise whenever possible.
*See How Does the 5E Instructional Model Promote Active, Collaborative, Inquiry-Based Learning? on pages 9 to 11.
ule to update their curriculum in response to their
variety of assessment components embedded
students’ interest in this topic. The focus on
within the module’s structure. The assessment
active, collaborative, and inquiry-based learning
tasks are authentic; they are similar to tasks that
in the lessons helps teachers support the develop-
students will engage in outside the classroom or
ment of student understanding and nurture a
to practices in which scientists participate. Anno-
community of science learners.
tations guide teachers to these opportunities for
assessment and provide answers to questions that
The structure of the lessons in this module enables
can help teachers analyze student feedback.
teachers to guide and facilitate learning. All of the
activities encourage and support student inquiry,
How Does the 5E Instructional
promote discourse among students, and challenge
Model Promote Active, Collaborative,
students to accept and share responsibility for their
Inquiry-Based Learning?
learning. The use of the 5E Instructional Model,
Because learning does not occur by way of passive
combined with active, collaborative learning,
absorption, the lessons in this module promote
allows teachers to respond effectively to the diver-
active learning. Students are involved in more
sity of student backgrounds and learning styles.
than listening and reading. They are developing
The module is fully annotated, with suggestions
skills, analyzing and evaluating evidence, experi-
for how teachers can encourage and model the
encing and discussing, and talking to their peers
skills of scientific inquiry, as well as foster curios-
about their own understanding. Students work
ity, openness to new ideas and data, and skepti-
collaboratively with others to solve problems and
cism, which characterize the study of science.
plan investigations. Many students find that they
learn better when they work with others in a col-
Assessment Standards
laborative environment than when they work
Teachers can engage in ongoing assessment of
alone in a competitive environment. When active,
their teaching and of student learning using the
collaborative learning is directed toward scientific
9
Implementing the Module
How Your Brain Understands What Your Ear Hears
inquiry, students succeed in making their own
• determine students’ current understanding
discoveries. They ask questions, observe, analyze,
about hearing and communication;
explain, draw conclusions, and ask new ques-
• invite students to raise their own questions
tions. These inquiry-based experiences include
about hearing and its relationship to human
both those that involve students in direct experi-
communication;
mentation and those in which students develop
• encourage students to compare their ideas with
explanations through critical and logical thinking.
those of others; and
• enable teachers to assess what students do or do
The viewpoint that students are active thinkers
not understand about the stated outcomes of the
who construct their own understanding from
lesson.
interactions with phenomena, the environment,
and other individuals is based on the theory of
Explore
constructivism. A constructivist view of learning
In the Explore phase of the module, Lesson 2:
recognizes that students need time to
Sound Communication, and Lesson 3: Do You Hear
• express their current thinking;
What I Hear? , students investigate the multisen-
• interact with objects, organisms, substances,
sory nature of human communication and com-
and equipment to develop a range of experi-
municating by way of sounds in their
ences on which to base their thinking;
environment. Students also investigate the charac-
• reflect on their thinking by writing and express-
teristics of sound, such as loudness and pitch.
ing themselves and comparing what they think
These lessons provide a common set of experi-
with what others think; and
ences within which students can begin to con-
• make connections between their learning expe-
struct their understanding. Students
riences and the real world.
• interact with materials and ideas through class-
This module provides a built-in structure for creat-
room demonstrations and simulations;
ing a constructivist classroom: the 5E Instructional
• consider different ways to solve a problem or
Model. The 5E model sequences the learning expe-
answer a question;
riences so that students have the opportunity to
• acquire a common set of experiences with their
construct their understanding of a concept over
classmates so they can compare results and
time. The model leads students through five phases
ideas;
of learning that are easily described using words
• observe, describe, record, compare, and share
that begin with the letter E: Engage, Explore,
their ideas and experiences; and
Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate. The following
• express their developing understanding of
paragraphs illustrate how the five Es are imple-
sound, hearing, and communication.
mented across the lessons in this module.
Explain
Engage
The Explain lesson provides opportunities for stu-
Students come to learning situations with prior
dents to connect their previous experiences and to
knowledge. This knowledge may or may not be
begin to make conceptual sense of the main ideas
congruent with the concepts presented in this
of the module. This stage also allows for the
module. The Engage lesson provides the opportu-
introduction of formal language, scientific terms,
nity for teachers to find out what students already
and content information that might make stu-
know or think they know about the topic and
dents’ previous experiences easier to describe. The
concepts to be covered.
Explain lesson for this module, Lesson 3: Do You
The Engage lesson in this module, Lesson 1: Get-
Hear What I Hear? , encourages students to
ting the Message, is designed to
• explain concepts and ideas (in their own words)
• pique students’ curiosity and generate interest;
about sound in terms of loudness and pitch;
10
• listen to and compare the explanations of others
The Evaluate lesson in this module, Lesson 5: Too
with their own;
Loud, Too Close, Too Long, provides an opportunity
• become involved in student-to-student dis-
for students to
course in which they explain their thinking to
• demonstrate what they understand about the
others and debate their ideas;
ear and hearing and how well they can apply
• revise their ideas;
their knowledge to solve a problem, namely
• record their ideas and current understanding;
reducing risk for noise-induced hearing loss;
• use labels, terminology, and formal language;
• share their current thinking with others;
and
• assess their own progress by comparing their
• compare their current thinking with what they
current understanding with their prior knowl-
previously thought.
edge; and
• ask questions that take them deeper into a
Elaborate
concept.
In Elaborate lessons, students apply or extend
previously introduced concepts in new situations
To review the relationship of the 5E Instructional
and relate their previous experiences to new ones.
Model to the concepts presented in the module,
In the Elaborate lesson in this module, Lesson 4:
see the table titled Science Content and Concep-
A Black Box Problem: How Do I Hear?, students