How the Ear Works & Sense of Hearing STEM Activity and Worksheet (NGSS MS-LS1-8)

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The ear contains some of the tiniest bones in our body and yet it can transform the movement of air molecules into electric impulses our brain understands as sound! How does it do that?

I’m sure that like me, rather than telling our students how this works, we want them to discover this incredible phenomenon on their own!

In this lesson, you begin by challenging your students to engineer a device capable of moving rice grains without ever coming in contact with the rice itself. Students will practice the engineering process in a collaborative group setting all while building their own understanding of how air molecules move and create vibration. This student-centered inquiry lab builds a foundation of understanding for how the ear works and how the brain processes auditory cues.

Following the inquiry lab, the lesson continues with a reading passage, teacher led slides, a parts of the ear worksheet, and a check-for-understanding 2-question assessment at the end of the lesson.

Students will investigate the question: How does the ear capture sound waves and transmit it to the brain to be used as information?

Recommended Age Group: middle school, grades 6-8

Included Materials:
➜ Student worksheets and teacher instructions for inquiry-based phenomenon lab
➜ Reading passage with 3 formats available for differentiation (a standard PDF, an interactive “note-taking” style, and a digital version available through Google Slides)
➜ Teacher presentation slides on the parts of the ear and auditory cues (both PowerPoint and Google Slides formats included)
➜ Parts of the ear and auditory cues student worksheet
➜ Check-for-understanding assessment questions for end of lesson check-in, 3 versions of the questions included to allow for differentiation (all 3 versions are available in PDF and Google Slides format)
➜ Teaching Guide

This lesson is part of a focus on the NGSS standard MS-LS1-8 (Gather and Synthesize information that sensory receptors respond to stimuli by sending messages to the brain for immediate behavior or storage as memories). The standard is covered fully in the unit bundle… check it out here!

Related Products

• Kinesthetic Sense and the Sense of Touch Lesson (NGSS MS-LS1-8)

• Learning Styles Questionnaire for Students (NGSS MS-LS1-8)

• Nervous System Middle School Lesson (NGSS MS-LS1-8)

• Parts of the Eye (NGSS MS-LS1-8)

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