Abstract:

The development of practical hands-on skills is essential in the training of engineers and scientists. Acoustics research laboratories sometimes used for Physics education, include the infrastructure equipment to learn the basics of oscillations and waves and to support the measurements of the acoustic properties of materials. In this work, we describe the steps of the educational experience after posing the specific acoustic problem to initiate the learning process.

The first step is one of the following topics:
. Investigate the mechanical forced oscillations, the frequency characteristics and the resonances of the Pohl´s pendulum.
. Think about ideas of interference and whether multiple exact same sounds played over each other produce a louder decibel output than the original sound, and consider first the problem of two identical sources of sound.
. Explore how diffraction occurs in sound and light waves and the fact that you can hear sounds around corners and around barriers.
. Inquiry about the distribution of sound in enclosures and how to design spaces with suitable acoustic characteristics taking into account sound velocity in air, sound absorption of materials and reverberation time of rooms.

After focusing on what about these general topics they want to research (experiment topics), students´ groups follow next steps that involve searching and evaluating of information resources and writing and oral presenting their laboratory research. We show some of the experiment topics the students explore and their results. Our teaching experiences indicate us the importance of designing guidelines for submission of essays and for research paper oral presentation that emphasize citing qualified references and the neat organization of graphics and tables.

Keywords:

Education in Acoustics, Education in Physics, Acoustical measurements and instrumentation (PACS, 43.10.Sv, 01.40.-d, 43.58.-e).