Work in progress — Using a “cigar box” guitar to teach waves and sound in a high school physics program

NASA-Threads is a full length high school physics program developed by Louisiana Tech University faculty with support from NASA. NASA-Threads is a partnership between K-12 schools and Louisiana Tech University that aims to improve high school student achievement in mathematics and science. This partnership will result in better prepared students entering science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs at the university level. Our previous experiences with K-12 program development have shown that long-term impact on students comes through close collaborative relationships between their teachers and university faculty. This paper presents how mathematics and science fundamentals are shown through the construction of a cigar box guitar. Tuning the guitar further develops the physics concepts of sounds, frequency, and waves.