Author: Lisa Werner

Now we’re starting to get to the nuts and bolts of the culminating project that the students will be involved with for the remainder of the year. Today we explored how artists and musicians can take scientific data and adapt it to the arts. We looked at visual artists like Jill Pelto, who take an ice melt data graph and turned it into easy-to-understand art. We studied composers like Judy Twedt who wrote a piano solo that shows how Arctic Sea levels have changed between 1976-2006. We also looked at “Hebrides Redacted,” which is a piece of music that depicts the changes of whale population over time – with the musicians leaving out notes from Mendelssohn’s “Hebrides Overture” as the whale population decreases.

We had discussions on which is easier to understand – the art or the data. We noticed how some students preferred the graphs and data, while others felt that was difficult to understand and preferred the art and music.

Next, students were tasked with creating their own music from data and graphs. The 7th and 8th graders have data they are analyzing from their science class project, so I had them take that data and compose music to represent what the graphs are trying to show. 5th and 6th graders were allowed to Google search something that they were interested in that would be displayed in graphs and charts. I had a collection of interesting graphs and charts for students in grades 3 and 4 to create their music with. Grades 1 and 2 had to find something they were interested in as a class, and then I guided them into making the music as students came up one at a time to select which notes should come next.

For the youngest kindergarten and preschool students, we used the science teacher’s game called “Charty Party.” I had one student come up in front of the class and be the “Scientist and Conductor,” and the rest of the class were musicians playing Orff instruments and Boomwhackers. The student playing the role of scientist and conductor had to look at the charts from the game, and then have musicians play their instruments in the shape of the graph. This was really fun to be able to show students how to read a graph, and to practice high and low sounds on our music instruments. Each student got a chance to be a Scientist/Conductor, and play each instrument!

Today in music, we learned about the Antarctic Treaty. We explored the countries that have signed it and what the laws of the treaty entail. We then compared that to the Artemis Accords, which are a similar agreement to sharing resources and research in space. We compared which countries have signed both (and, even more interestingly, which countries have not along with the implications of why countries may not sign).

Students then had to pick a country from the Antarctic Treaty. They researched instruments that are traditionally used in the country’s music, and composed one measure to represent their country, based off of rhythms they hear in the country’s national anthem (thus testing their aural skills – requiring them to transcribe a rhythm from the national anthem).

After each student was done, I compiled each student’s measure and added them together into one giant composition, much like different quilt squares come together to create a beautiful quilt. This piece of music represents the countries of the Antarctic Treaty!

This week in music class, we toured the music of the nearest indigenous peoples to Antarctica. I created a tour for the students to explore the music of the Māori, Palawa, Noongar, Xhosa, Khoekhoe, Selk’nam, and Yaghan people. We reviewed the information related to Pangea, so that students could see that Antarctica used to be attached to other countries and continents.

In addition to listening to traditional music of these cultures, we learned facts about the people and looked at some of their artwork and symbols. The students were fascinated!

I had the students write one measure of music to reflect the style of music they enjoyed the best on the tour. They then decorated their music with the symbols and artwork of their chosen culture. I originally thought the students would use the 5 lines for composing their measure of music, but so many of the students really enjoyed the music of many cultures and turned their five lines into music from their 5 favorite cultures!

After the compositions were complete, I hung them all up in the hallway creating an artistic mosaic of the cultures we toured.

Today was an interesting day, as we had the local news channel come in to observe how the students and I were making use of the Antarctic expedition. They had been in before I left, and were now doing a follow-up, which was great to be able to feature the students!

For today’s lesson, the students were going to take full-length recordings I had made on my expedition, trim them to isolate one sound and then create a beatbox-type composition from a collection of isolated sounds. Older students did this using an online-based platform found at audiomass.co, and worked individually. Younger students participated in this by composing the groove as a full class – each student picking out which sound they want to add next. I pre-isolated those sounds for them, and then we slid them in place using my iPad with GarageBand. This allowed us to drag and drop the sounds into our timeline until every student had gotten to pick out a song.

We talked a lot about repetition, and watched Pentatonix for a sample of real beatboxing in action. We also watched a video on YouTube called “Animal Beatbox,” where a collection of animal names are repeated to solidify the groove.

Students had a lot of fun with this, and surprisingly, the youngest students were actually the best at making the grooves, as they enjoyed the repetition of picking the same sound as their friend did earlier!

Our younger students are learning about high and low notes and the shape of music. To practice this, I let each student in grades PreK-4th grade pick out an iceberg photo that I took on my expedition. They then had to create music in the shape of the iceberg – the music needed to go up when the shape of the berg went up, and down when the iceberg sloped downward. We then hung up our work in the hallway, with QR codes so that people can listen to them.

I’ve had students write words down after each lesson to see what lasting effects Antarctica is having on them. I created this word cloud to show how they’re doing. You’ll have to excuse the word ‘bear’ that shows up, as the students were talking about whether they could bear the isolation….they do know there aren’t polar bears in the Antarctic! I’m hoping to see how this word cloud changes as we continue our learning throughout the rest of the year!