Dangerous Decibels Program Walk-Through: 6. How Loud is Too Loud?

Flashcard Activity

For this activity, select your flashcards in advance of teaching the course. Your Dangerous Decibels Kit has a selection of cards preprinted that work well in most instances. There is a PowerPoint file with a large assortment of additional flashcards available in the Resources .These “slides” can be used to print and laminate additional sound sources that may be more appropriate for your audience.

It is important to pick flashcards that the students can relate to. For instance, showing a flashcard of a snowmobile to students in a school in a tropical climate would likely be irrelevant to them. And showing a flashcard of a noisy traffic sound source may be irrelevant to students in a very rural community. Ideally, pick sounds that most of the students may have had some kind of experience with.

The flashcard activity is intentionally “low tech” to give the students the hands-on experience that is critical to the inquiry-based learning approach and the success of the Dangerous Decibels program. Avoid any temptation to project the flashcards using a computer. Keep the students directly engaged with handling the flashcards.

Each sound source on a Flashcard lists the associated decibel sound pressure level and the safe listening time for exposure to that sound. The level of 85 dBA for 8 hours sign is used as a “VERY IMPORTANT NUMBER” and we can listen to this sound level for 8 hours. For a refresh, review the Safe or Dangerous? online training module.

Emphasize that the higher the decibel level the shorter the safe listening time. Students are not expected to know the time limits exactly, but rather to recognize if a sound is dangerous, how short the safe listening time is.

For each flashcard you are asking the students 2 questions:

We’ve given you some flashcard examples here, but you can certainly pick others that fit your audience.
Safe sound < 85 dBA Sound right at 85 dBA Dangerous Sound that you can turn down Dangerous sound that you can walk away from Dangerous sound that have to use earmuffs or earplugs to protect your ears from 
Hold back the headphones flashcard and the concert flashcard for use later in the program.
Usually, you will use at least 9-10 flashcards and more if time permits. Also, make sure the students aren’t able to glimpse the decibel levels in advance. This can be done by advising the student volunteers to hold the cards up against their chest with only the picture side showing.

6. How Loud is Too Loud?

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