First empirical works in acoustics done by freshman students at a public university in Argentina.

Abstract

A Bachelor of Science in Sound Engineering of five years was created at the Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero in Argentina in the year 2007. The first course of the specialty that students should take is Introduction to Acoustics and Psychoacoustics. It has a four month duration, is located in freshman year, and does not require any previous course of math or physics. The course intention is to give beginners a global point of view of acoustics and its branches, the nature of sound, some elementary concepts of acoustics, and the basic methodological directions to elaborate academic projects on acoustics. As a very early stage training in scientific method and project development, the undergraduates have to choose a topic to perform a project during the semester. At the middle of the course, the pupils ought to consign a project progress report. At the end of the course, they submit the final report and give an oral presentation to their classmates. This work expounds the empirical work in class and summarizes some student projects carried out during the courses taught between years 2007 and 2010.