Name of lesson: The Paper Cup Telephone

Grade Level: 4th Grade

Suggested Group Size: Whole group of about 20 students

Subject: Science

Standard: Students understand about how the sound travels through string and air and
about sound waves and vibrations.

Objective: The students will use a paper cup and string to understand why sound travels
through the strings, and why sound makes vibrations.

Materials:
• 6 feet of string
• 6 feet of ribbon string
• a paper cup
• a one-inch paper clip
• a pencil
• computer that demonstrates the video on how to make paper cup telephone

Procedure:
• Teacher will begin lesson by asking students what they know about the way
telephones work and call on the students who have answers
• Teacher will explain to the students that they are going to be doing a fun activity
where they build paper cup telephones to talk to one another
• Teacher explains that they first need to read the science textbook lesson to
understand sound vibrations together as a class
• Once the lesson is completed from the book, the teacher will give multiple
students the supplies for the activity to pass out to the class.
• Once the materials are passed out, the teacher will demonstrate the instructions by
going to the Mystery Science website and play the video.
• The students will tie a knot in one end of the string
• The students will push down the back of the paperclip and slide in the loop of the
string, take the two ends and twists them apart
• The students will then use a pencil to poke a hole in the cup and push the
paperclip through the hole.
• The students will be doing several experiments with the cup. They will first hold
the cup over their mouth and say a few words. After a minute of this, the teacher
will ask the students if they felt anything from the cup.
• The next experiment will have the students hold the string and talk into the cup.
After this experiment, the teacher will ask the students if they felt anything then.
 • The next experiment will have the students put the cup next to their ears and
gently rub the string. After this experiment, the teacher will ask students what
they noticed.
• For the next experiment, they will pull the string tight and pluck it gently. After
this experiment, the teacher will ask the students what they noticed.
• For the next experiment, the students will find a partner and decide who will be
the voice and the ear.
• The students will next tie a loose end of their string to the loose end of their
partner’s string.
• The students will then separate across the room and pull the string straight.
• The voice will whisper a number between 1 and 5 and the ear will use their
fingers to show the number they hear.
• Allow the students to freely talk on their telephones for a couple minutes.
• Next, repeat some steps with ribbon string.
• After these experiments, we will be answering the questions from the website to
see what we learned from this experiment.

Assessment: I will be giving students an authentic assessment to see what they learned
from this real-life experiment. The work sheet will consist of questions about what
happens when you speak, and what happens to the string when you speak. It will also ask
the students what they noticed and learned from this experiment.