Where’s Wilbert’s Voice?

Come join Wilbert the Whale whilst he discovers all about the physics of sound trying to re-find his voice - meeting underwater ceilidh bands, making new instruments and learning about ocean sustainability along the way.

This new free primary resource was developed by physics student Megan Leishman as part of the University of Edinburgh’s science communication course and was launched on our Twitter and Facebook account with a live interview with teacher Debbie Leishman and supervisors Tom Grove, Dr Jean-Christophe Denis and Lewis Hou.

Where's Wilbert's Voice is an interdisciplinary resource for 1st/2nd level Curriculum for Excellence learners. It aims to show learners that physics and music are not so far apart as they may initially seem to be. It tells the story of a a whale, Wilbert, as he loses his voice and alongside his mother travels around the underwater neighbourhood to find it. Along the way Wilbert gets help from lots of different animals who each teach him about how a different instrument makes noise. There are also discussions of ocean pollution in the story, through rubbish and noise. The story is in the form of a PowerPoint presentation, and within it there are 4 activities for the learners to take part in. There are also links to relevant videos throughout the story for the learners to watch too.

You can now access the files here on read-only googledrive. These are shared under Creative Commons licensing (with attribution) and we’d love to see how you use them (tag us on social media @scienceceilidh) and welcome any feedback on our form on how to develop it further!