Workshop ‘AstroSounds: vibrating stars’ 

In this activity we started from the fascination and wonder of the starry sky to connect the wonder of a scientist to the expression of a poet.

The students where asked to share some thoughts when they look to the stars. These keywords were collected by means of the Wooclap app. This formed the occasion to dive further into the world of vibrating stars. We listened to the polar star ‘polaris’, a giant vibrating star. We inquired the origin of sound both of musical instruments and of stars. We did simple experiments with tuning forks and measured frequencies and wave forms. Moreover, we learned by measuring the spectrum of sounds, that each star, like a musical instrument, has its own timbre.  We synthesized by means of the online iMuSciCa workbench the timbre of some stars. The workshop ended with reading loud the poem made by AI but based on the keywords of the students.

Here you find the powerpoint of the workshop.

With the QR codes on the cards we inquired the origin of sound both of musical instruments and of stars.