In science we predominantly represent data numerically or graphically. Teachers, and students, are comfortable with the idea that we can represent the world by a series of numbers or a line on a graph.
Sonification is an approach to treating and analysing data through sound to create an auditory display. One example that has been fairly widely used is the representation of astronomical data and concepts, including in planetaria. One benefit for astronomers of using sound is because the dataset are extremely large which can make it hard to plot the data in a conventional manner i.e. graphically. However, sound can have a range of parameters such as pitch, volume, tempo and type of instrument. This variety means that it is possible to represent and comprehend a much more complex data set using sound.
In addition, sonification also has use to support people who are blind or vision impaired to access data and visual information more readily.
In this session, participants will make their own (simple) sonifications of different data, and consider how they could use sound to help students explore data in their classrooms.
