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Lesson 6 of 16 · Engineering and Design

Lesson30 XP🛠️ Engineer Shop

How Sound Travels

🧪Lab Brief #6

Engineering and Design.

🎯 Your mission

Learn the rule. Then catch nature using it.

⚡ The twist

Constraints make you more creative, not less.

🤯

Mind = Blown

🌉 The Eiffel Tower can grow 6 inches taller in summer because metal expands when hot.

🔮

Make a hypothesis first

Before you test: how many tries until it works?

What You'll Learn

Sound is a vibration that travels through matter as a wave. It cannot travel through a vacuum. Sound travels fastest through solids and slowest through gases.

Key Words

Tap a word to see its definition.

Steps

Step 1Read

Look at the vocabulary words and write a definition for each in your own words.

Step 2Do

Conduct a design challenge: build a car powered only by a balloon. Measure how far it travels and iterate on your design at least twice.

Step 3Observe

Use your senses (except taste) to describe what you notice.

Step 4Record

Write a summary of your findings in 3-5 sentences.

Check Your Understanding

Question 1

1 of 3

What is sound?

🌍

Where you see this in real life

Your phone, your bike, your shoes — all designed with this idea.

🏆

Stretch Challenge

Try this in real life this week.

Build something — anything — out of stuff in your recycling bin.

👨‍👩‍👧

For the dinner table

What's something around the house you'd redesign — and how?

🎯

Next Smart Experiment

We'll pick an experiment that matches exactly how you're thinking right now.

🧬Share card

Share this experiment

Send it to a parent who's looking for a 10-minute kitchen science win.

Ready?

How Sound Travels

Learn the rule. Then catch nature using it.

Full screen — no distractions

🖨️

Checkout complete lesson on Engineering and Design for 3rd Grade

Get the full Engineering and Design track as a printable PDF — all lessons, worksheets, and answer keys.

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How Sound Travels — Engineering and Design | 3rd Grade Science | LittleActivity