Education Projects
In a time when our focus on the environment and climate change is at an all -time high, we need to develop a new generation of young people who have the curiosity and imagination to tackle the challenges ahead.
Vision is the primary human sense – we are creatures of ‘light’. Yet the majority a large proportion of the planet’s inhabitants are creatures of ‘sound’. From kindergarten, through school to university and postgraduate studies, equipping students with a unique listening device like the DolphinEar DE200 allows them to discover a new world for themselves.
The possibilities are limited only by your imagination, but here are a few examples to get you started.
Science Experiments & Environmental Observations:
Velocity of Sound in different media
A school science class was given the assignment to measure and compare the velocity of sound in air and water. They set up a standard air microphone and a DolphinEar hydrophone at one end of a swimming pool and connected them to a digital stereo recorder. At a given signal, a student at the opposite end of the pool hit the water hard with a paddle. Several attempts were recorded. Back in the classroom the students were able to use the spectrogram software supplied with DolphinEar to measure the time taken for the sound of the paddle to reach the recorder in both air and water. Using the known length of the pool, they then calculated and compared the velocity of sound in the two media.
What can a foetus hear in the uterus?
A DolphinEar hydrophone was used to study the sounds reaching a lamb while still inside the ewe’s uterus. It withstood sterilisation procedures necessary for surgical implantation and functioned reliably.
Photosynthesis
In freshwater ponds, photosynthesis is the primary process by which plants convert sunlight, carbon dioxide and water into sugars and release oxygen, which is crucial for the entire ecosystem. Minute bubbles of oxygen form on the underside of leaves. When these are released a “ping” sound occurs. This is what you can hear on this audio recording made from a DolphinEar DE200 hydrophone placed in a small pond in the UK.
Pond life
If you go pond dipping you only learn about the few organisms that you may see on the surface or catch in your net or jar. With a DolphinEar hydrophone you can hear what lurks in the hidden depths.
Introduction to Bio-accoustics
Introduce students to the world of underwater ‘bio-acoustics’, How does a frog sound underwater? Do they make sounds while swimming? Monitor sound activity in ponds, lakes, rivers and estuaries. What does a swan sound like when swimming? Or when it lands clumsily on the water? Can you hear fish munching on weeds at the bottom of a pond or the river?
University & Postgraduate studies
Sound opens new areas of research that have been largely ignored in recent times. DolphinEar hydrophones have played an important role in the development of new low cost, non-
We Recommend a DE200-8
The easiest DolphinEar to use as it just needs a battery to function out of the box. You may consider a longer cable version.
