Kerry made this very cool eerie sounds device two years ago. I made one today with my children and they LOVED the spooky noises it made. They kept scaring me, hiding round corners and creaking.
You will need:
- A plastic cup
- A paperclip
- Some ribbon
- Water
- Thick tissue or paper towel.
- Something to make a hole in your cup.
Method
1. Carefully pierce a hole in the top of the cup.
2. Thread the ribbon through the hole and tie a small knot at the end.
3. Attach the paper clip.
6. Wet a small paper towel.
7. Fold this round the ribbon and pull down!
It should sound like a creaky door.
The Science bit
The cup acts like a sound board. If you rubbed the towel down the ribbon without it, you would not hear any sound, but the cup amplifies the vibrations created by the movement and you get the sound.
Other ideas
You could try different widths of ribbon and see how the sound differs.
What if you just pull the ribbon through, does that still make a noise?
Don’t forget to check out our other Halloween Science Experiments.
This reminds me of the moose calls I used to make using a large coffee can and braided string…great adaptation for small hands!
You do such a great job with kid-friendly science activities! Thanks so much for sharing this one with us at After School.
Keep on writing and chguging away!
That’s really thinikng at a high level