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STEM story - Ages 7-9

How Does the Beat Get There?

Vern, DJ Unicorn, and a sound surprise

10 pages • read your way

Scroll on a phone, or open a two-page spread on a larger screen.

Vern and DJ Unicorn in a sound lab beside a music player, audio cable, and small speaker

Page 1

How does the beat get there?

Vern and DJ Unicorn have a beat to follow and a sound surprise to solve.

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DJ Unicorn beside a quiet speaker and loose cable while Vern wonders what happened to the beat

Page 2

Where did the beat go?

The music player is ready, but the speaker stays quiet.

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Vern points at the loose audio cable while fanciful bubbles show his tiny beat bubbles idea

Page 3

Vern's prediction

Vern wonders if tiny beat bubbles are hiding inside the cable.

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DJ Unicorn connects one continuous audio cable from the music player to the active speaker while Vern watches

Page 4

Let's test it

DJ Unicorn connects the cable, presses play, and wakes up the speaker.

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Vern watches a speaker cone move while a small paper strip flutters a short distance in front of it

Page 5

The cone moves

The speaker cone trembles to the pattern and makes the paper strip flutter.

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Vern looks surprised beside the connected cable and moving speaker while a paper strip flutters

Page 6

A surprise!

The cable never made a sound. The cone moved, and then the air moved.

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Vern gestures from the music player through the connected cable to the speaker and outward air while DJ Unicorn smiles

Page 7

Vern revises his idea

Vern realizes that the cable carries a changing electrical signal, not sound.

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Vern and DJ Unicorn arrange the same music player, one audio cable, and one speaker in a clear left-to-right chain

Page 8

DJ Unicorn's beat map

The beat travels as an electrical signal, moves the cone, and becomes a pressure wave in the air.

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Vern and DJ Unicorn observe a tissue strip fluttering in front of a low-volume battery-powered speaker

Page 9

Try it safely

With a grown-up, watch a tiny tissue strip flutter in front of a low-volume speaker.

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Vern and DJ Unicorn smile beside the tidy sound-lab setup with the music player, cable, and speaker

Page 10

Remember the beat's journey

Player, electrical signal, moving cone, air-pressure wave, ears: that is the beat's journey.

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