Quest: Bubble TV
6-Week Choice Quest: Underwater Microphone Display Using Bubble Noise as "White Light"
Overview:
In this quest, you'll explore how sound underwater, like bubble noises, can be turned into a colorful light display. You will learn how to use special underwater microphones to capture the sound and then turn it into a light show, just like how white light is made up of many different colors. This project combines science, technology, and creativity!
Week 1: Learn About Underwater Sound and Microphones
Objective: Understand underwater sound and how microphones can capture it.
- Activities:
- Explore how sound travels underwater and how bubbles make noise.
- Learn about special microphones (called hydrophones) that work underwater.
- Discover how sound can be broken into different parts (frequencies), just like how white light is made of many colors.
- Try out some basic microphone examples and see how they pick up sound.
- Project Milestone:
- Draw a plan for where you would place the microphones in the water to capture bubble noises. Think about how the microphones will listen to the sound.
Week 2: Sound Analysis and Fourier Transforms
Objective: Learn how to break sound into its different parts and study its patterns.
- Activities:
- Learn about how to look at sound in different parts or frequencies using something called a Fourier transform.
- Listen to samples of bubble noise and try to see what frequencies are in the sound.
- Use simple programs (like Audacity or a free app) to view the frequencies in bubble sounds.
- Project Milestone:
- Take a sample of bubble noise and show the different frequencies in the sound using a program. Create a picture or graph of these frequencies.
Week 3: Turning Sound Into Light
Objective: Design a way to turn the sound of bubbles into colorful lights.
- Activities:
- Learn about how light works and how colors are made from different light frequencies (just like how different sounds have different frequencies).
- Discover how LED lights or projectors can change color depending on what frequency they are told to display.
- Plan how to connect the frequencies of the bubble noise to the colors of the lights. For example, higher frequencies could be a bright color, and lower ones could be darker colors.
- Project Milestone:
- Build a simple display using lights (LEDs or a projector) and experiment with making the lights change based on different sounds or frequencies.
Week 4: Putting It All Together – Microphones and Real-Time Processing
Objective: Set up a system to capture the bubble sound and control the lights with it in real-time.
- Activities:
- Learn how to connect the microphones to a computer or a small controller like a Raspberry Pi or Arduino.
- Set up a system that listens to the sound, breaks it down into frequencies, and then uses that information to control the lights.
- Try it out with some bubble sounds and see how well the lights react.
- Project Milestone:
- Test your system with the microphone, sound processing, and lights all working together. Make sure the lights change based on the sounds you hear.
Week 5: Making It Interactive and Fun
Objective: Add some interactive elements so the display reacts to changes in the environment.
- Activities:
- Test the system in different underwater environments, like with more or fewer bubbles.
- Experiment with how the display reacts when the bubble noise changes, like when a diver moves or when marine life is nearby.
- Add extra features to the display, like making the lights blink or change patterns when the bubble noise gets louder.
- Project Milestone:
- Finalize your interactive display, making sure the lights change in fun and creative ways based on the bubble noises.
Week 6: Final Presentation and Reflection
Objective: Show off your project and reflect on what you've learned.
- Activities:
- Prepare a presentation to explain how your microphone array works, how you processed the sound, and how the display changes based on the bubbles.
- Reflect on what was fun and challenging about the project and how you could improve it.
- Share your project with classmates and explain how the sound of the bubbles became a beautiful light display.
- Project Milestone:
- Present your final project to the class, showing how your microphone array and light display work together to turn bubble noise into a colorful light show. Share your thoughts on the science behind the project and how you solved any problems.
Choice Elements:
Throughout the project, you can choose how you want to build your system. You can decide what tools to use for sound processing (software or apps), what kind of lights to use (LEDs or projectors), and which microphone setup to use. You can also pick different types of bubble noises to work with, like those made by marine animals or divers!
Assessment:
- Final Presentation: Show your completed project and explain how everything works, from capturing the sound to making the lights change.
- Reflection: Write or discuss what you learned about how sound and light are connected, and how you turned sound into light in a creative way.
This quest will teach you science, technology, and creativity while having fun with bubbles, sound, and lights!
