Sound Around You is an interesting project designed to study how soundscapes affect a person’s mood and productivity. A soundscape is the acoustic environment around you. You can participate in the Sound Around You project by visiting the website and uploading sounds from your local environment. Sound Around You was created by some folks at the University of Salford with funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

Applications for Education
Your students could conduct their own “Sound Around You” project for a science fair or as a experiment in a psychology or human behavior course. Your students could do this by having participants take a simple math quiz with music playing and then have participants try the same quiz without music playing. Students then analyze the results to see if the soundscape makes a difference. The number of sound variables that your students can test is almot limitless.

Here are some related resources that may be of interest to you:
Science Projects and Posters for Elementary Schools
Lesson Plans from the Department of Energy