Tin can phones

We had some empty giant coffee creamer plastic containers so we decided to make some "tin can" phones. We had made some before using paper plates, string, and popsicle sticks (wrapping the string around a popsicle stick up against the plate), with limited success. The coffee creamer containers worked much better, probably because they captured sound better and added their own funny-sounding resonance. We also figured out that we could use one of the containers as an amplifier so when we strummed the string between the two "phones" we could hear a clear note come out of each container - a good example of how the string was transporting vibration and the containers were turning those vibrations into sound (o.k., technically the ear was turning them into sound and the containers were just amplifying and modifying the vibrations). Overall I'd say it was a fun experiment that worked well.

Rubber band guitar

Materials
Kleenex box
rubber bands
pens

Results
Success

Working theory

Sound results from periodic (i.e. regular) vibrations. Changing the length, thickness, or tautness of a rubber band should change how it vibrates and what pitch it produces.

Experiment

We started by placing different sized rubber bands around an empty Kleenex box, strumming the part of the rubber band that was over the opening of the box (where the Kleenex come out). This created a muted and muddy sound. Thinking the rubber band was up against too much of the box, preventing sustained vibrations, we moved two pens under the rubber bands and strummed in between them, making a nice note. By changing the distance between the pens (lengthening or shortening the part of the rubber band that vibrated), we were able to systematically change the pitch we got.