Mississippi Science PHS.6.4
The Standard
- PHS.6
- Students will explore the characteristics of waves.
Enrichment: Use an engineering design process to design and build a musical instrument to demonstrate the influence of resonance on music. *
2026 Mississippi College- and Career-Readiness Standards for Science · Waves
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Students build a three-note instrument from matching bottles and water. They blow across each opening, listen to the notes, and adjust the water levels. They explain how the air inside each bottle makes its note.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can tune three bottles to play a short melody. They can explain that adding water leaves less air in a blown bottle, which raises its pitch. They test each change and adjust again if needed.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think adding water always lowers pitch, confusing a blown bottle with a tapped one. They may think the water, rather than the air, makes the note when they blow across the opening. Some think blowing harder is the best way to change the pitch.
How to Assess It
- Show two matching bottles, one half full and one nearly empty. Ask: "When you blow across them, which sounds higher? What vibrates, and how could you lower that note?"
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs three matching bottles and water; have them build a three-note instrument, test each note, and adjust the water levels.
Ask students to write why adding water raises the pitch when they blow across a bottle but lowers it when they tap the bottle.
Play two bottles behind a folder; students guess which holds more water, then check their answers.
Play two recorder notes, opening a finger hole for the second; students identify which note has the shorter vibrating air column.
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Printable PHS.6.4 Worksheet
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