An experiment intended to familiarize a student with the musical scale and the technique of tuning an instrument by listening for beats is described. From the dial reading of the oscillator frequency and the counted beats frequency, the student then computes the frequency of each musical note over one full octave. (Author)

Discusses an elementary school Design Lab in which students construct musical instruments with little intervention from the instructor. Describes some problem solving situations which arose during the activities, and which provided experience in developing computational and reasoning skills. (MLH)