Category Archives: Lyrical Science
“Covalent Love” winner of Science Idol
Congratulations to James Mustapic, winner of Tomcfad’s Science Idol 2012 competition in New Zealand. For students in the UK, there is a similar competition underway: Geek Pop 2012. Have a go!
I was fortunate to meet Tom McFadden in Kyoto University yesterday, and have written up some thoughts on Educational Hip-Hop: Creativity and the Curriculum on i-Biology | Reflections.
Get inspired!
Symphony of Science – Quantum World
This Symphony of Science song is one of my favourites, which ties loosely to our new Grade 9 unit on Atoms.
Related to it is an update to the Powers of Ten video, from the IMAX Cosmic Voyage movie, narrated by Morgan Freeman. the start brings us in powers of ten, out into the universe. From 6:03, we start moving in – to cells, molecules and atoms.
Jump straight to the small bits here (6:03). Biology class will use it too, as we look into measurement and microscopy.
This is why we love Science.
The Symphony of Science
Thanks to Bing (the encyclopedic student, not the search engine) for showing me this. The perfect post-exam chillout!
The Symphony of Science is a musical project headed by John Boswell, designed to deliver scientific knowledge and philosophy in musical form.
It mashes TED Talks, Carl Sagan and autotune into quite the experience. Let The Ode to the Brain mess with your grey matter:
Lyrical Science: Good Riddance (to excess end products)
A sing-along-a-Biology song, for end-product inhibition of metabolic pathways, based on Green Day’s “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)“. Put the audio track on and sing along, karaoke-style.
For more Lyrical Science madness & how-to, click here.
The Biology Song & Lyrical Science
I love this song. “There are seven things it needs to survive”:
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Inspired by the Stanford biologists, I’m looking for popular songs to butcher into biological themes. The process of taking one of your favourite songs and twisting it into a factually-sound academic re-write can be a great way to consolidate key concepts, especially for the musically intelligent. It takes more than just recall of the facts – you have to force yourself to understand the topic in order to write a decent song. To make the song make sense, you need a good grasp of the content and you must use the key terms correctly.
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Ideas so far –
- An IB Biology version of “Apoptize” (One Republic’s ‘Apologize‘) (completed – click here)
- “One Gene, One Protein“, after “No Woman, No Cry“
- “Don’t Divide Even“, after The Script’s “Break Even” (completed – click here)
- “I Will Divide,” after Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” (have a go – click here)
- “ACE, ACE Inhibitors“, based on Vanilla Ice’s “Ice, Ice Baby“
- Endangered Species song for “Numb/Encore” by LP and Jay-Z
- “Hormones“, after Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours“
- “Good Riddance (to excess end products)“, based on Green Day’s “Good Riddance (Time of Your life)” (completed – click here)
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For some more reading on how making use of Musical Intelligence can aid in learning across the curriculum:
- “The Effect of Music on Second Language Vocab Acquisition” from ESL Through Music
- “Promoting Literacy Through Music” from Songs for Teaching (Resources here: Science page)
- “Singing In Science: Writing and Recording Student Lyrics to Express Learning” from the University of California. Here’s Tomcfad demonstrating this technique with an elementary earth science class:
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My big question: Has there been any research on the effectiveness of different styles of music in relation to age group, cultural background or musical preference?
Many of the bought-resources seem to based on country songs or old songs – how well does that translate to a modern teen audience in an international or urban setting?
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If you’ve got any cool ideas (the more complex, the better), or any comments on the use of music as a learning tool, please post them below!
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Headphones image from: http://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/date/2008/page/5/
i-Biology 