Educators
Below are resources for teachers, librarians, professors, and anyone else interested in acoustics education.
ASA Lesson Plans
Lessons are divided into three main categories: Physical Science, Physics, and Lower Elementary. Many lessons can be used for most grades. These were developed for the ASA Teacher Activity Kit, however can be done with common household materials.
The Acoustics Collection
The American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) developed the Acoustics Collection in coordination with the ASA. These K-8 lessons utilize some of the materials available in the Teacher Activity Kit as well as additional items.
AT Collections
Acoustics Today articles have been collected for use by anyone interested in learning about a particular acoustics topic. These are excellent supplements for for a wide range of courses from high school through graduate school.
DOSITS Resources
Discovery of Sound in the Sea (DOSITS) provides these educator resources to introduce the science of underwater sound to students. Access tutorials, activities, sounds, videos and more.
Noisy Planet’s Teacher Toolkit
The Noisy Planet’s Teacher Toolkit will help you teach preteens about the causes and prevention of noise-induced hearing loss. It provides easy-to-use resources and step-by-step instructions for fun activities.
EdCom Educational Resources
The ASA Committee on Education in Acoustics (EdCom) has created this community based resource bank to help connect teachers to educational materials. Search the database by grade and/or acoustics topics. EdCom also encourages educators to share resources that they have developed, or are classroom favorites!
Workshops
Interested in continuing education? The Acoustical Society of America has offered a variety of educational opportunities for educators and students. Educators have attended workshops hosted by the American Association of Physics Teachers and events at biannual ASA meetings. Visit our workshops page to learn more!
ASA Teacher Activity Kit
The ASA Teacher Activity kit includes materials to teach a class of 30 students plus access to over 40 research-based, interactive, student-tested lessons and laboratory exercises, along with several assessments and video clips of a class using the materials. The kit is free for k-12 applications.
Fields of Acoustics
Learn about the breadth of acoustics! Acousticians include engineers, physicists, speech and hearing scientists, architects, biologists, psychologists, linguists, mathematicians, oceanographers, computer scientists, and musicians. Since there are many different areas of study and practice within acoustics we have condensed materials into 8 main content areas here.
Career Profiles
So what do acousticians do? There is a lot that acousticians can do, both academically and professionally. Learn about the different kinds of jobs and research that acousticians do. Read short profiles of real acousticians from various fields. Professionals and academics write about what kind of acoustics they do, how they got into acoustics and share helpful tips for future acousticians.
Supplemental Materials
Supplemental materials such as learning process skills definitions and background readings are available for the lesson plans designed for the ASA Teacher Activity Kit. Educators may find it useful to review the supplemental materials before introducing lessons to your students/class.
TUM Acoustics Apps
The Technical University of Munich (TUM) has created an e-learning platform that offers an interactive and playful environment for teaching and learning the principles of acoustics and vibration. The apps contain virtual experiments designed to be used by students and teachers without any special knowledge or equipment.
Terms and Definitions
Acousticians often use special words or expressions that may be difficult for others to understand. This list of acoustical terms has been provided with short descriptions in non-technical language to provide a better understanding of the terminology frequently used in the field of acoustics. Refer to this list if you come across a new acoustics word and aren’t sure what it means.