Teaching Strategies

In this session Merryl will describe how she evaded the KGB during the Cold War with a secret musical code and how that code, and indeed music are key to core principles of cybersecurity.  Merryl is working with CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency) to examine the preparation of cybersecurity professionals specifically how the arts matter in the field.

Songwriter Monty Harper teases apart two or three great songs (by other writers) to find out what makes a great STEM song so great. Songwriters may gain insight into how great new songs might be constructed. Educators may gain insight into how to evaluate a song and discover its value for classroom use.

Since ancient times songs have been used for teaching and learning. We often think of melody as providing a mnemonic device for recalling information, but songs have the ability to engage students in learning at a much more conceptual level. Dissertation research completed in 2011 shows that especially for middle school students, songs that are rich in content can be used to build conceptual understanding through prolonged engagement, vocabulary building, providing alternative explanations and stimulating the brain through multiple neural networks.

Have you always wanted to use music to teach your content, but you’ve been afraid to try it because you weren’t sure you could “write a song” or because you don’t see yourself as being “musical”? Well, never fear! The process is a lot simpler than you would think, and in this short workshop, Willy Wood, co-author of The Rock ‘N’ Roll Classroom, and poet Brod Bagert will walk you through a simple step-by-step process that will have you creating content-embedded songs for your classroom in no time.

This presentation starts with the premise that, outside of this particular conference, many STEM instructors and administrators think that using music in the classroom is silly, superficial, ineffective, etc. To combat this pervasive view, we music-using instructors should aim to be rigorous and clear regarding the specific purpose and usage of each song we incorporate into our curricula. The speaker's past blunders will be highlighted as cautionary counterexamples.

This presentation starts with the premise that, outside of this particular conference, many STEM instructors and administrators think that using music in the classroom is silly, superficial, ineffective, etc. To combat this pervasive view, we music-using instructors should aim to be rigorous and clear regarding the specific purpose and usage of each song we incorporate into our curricula. The speaker's past blunders will be highlighted as cautionary counterexamples.

In the 21st century classroom students don't just want to hear you talk for 20+ minutes. You may feel like you're being informative or that it's necessary, but for the learners not so much. Our society has created a generation of people with such short attention spans. People are more receptive to music, dance and videos. Combine those together and you get engagement and 21st century learning. Learn how to put your STEM lesson in an effective song format which will allow the song do the teaching. As the educator you will just have to facilitate, monitor and assess.

Songs can be effective in engaging children with science. Tweens (children aged 8 to 12) are in an important preadolescent phase where individual interests are thought to be established. This study aims to determine if songs can help teachers to engage their tween-aged students with science. A review of the songs currently available to help teachers in Australia engage tweens with science was conducted. Few songs were found that were directed at tweens and most were aimed at content knowledge rather than engagement.

The video poster will be a brief outline of a project funded by the Stephen Hawking Foundation to create five music videos about high school physics. Research was done prior to their creation to inform the best approach to the song writing, video production, and accompanying resources and evaluation was conducted on the efficacy of the videos and their appeal to students and teachers.

View Poster

This presentation will document a project in collaboration with the Physics department of the University of Oxford in which physicists used collaborative songwriting to reach children from hard to reach populations around Oxford. The presentation will outline the project, and the evaluation data, and ask in what ways the lessons learned can be applied to a classroom setting, and also how lyrics can be used for assessment for learning.