TeachRock

Motivational Activity:

1.  Show students Image 1, Following the Grateful Dead for 30 Years. Ask students:
   • What might this graph be showing? What do the dots represent? What do the lines represent?
   • Who are the Grateful Dead?
   • Do you think other bands or musicians have similar touring schedules?
2. Optional: If students have access to the internet, ask them to research the most recent tour schedule for one of their favorite bands or musicians. Then ask students to share with the class what they found, including how many concerts the tour consists of, and how many cities, states and/or countries are included on the tour.
3. Tell students that touring has always been an avenue for musicians to make a living, if they can sell enough concert tickets. But there are also many expenses involved in touring. Ask students:
   • How would you define the term “expense”?
   • What sort of expenses might be involved in going on a tour? (Students might suggest touring costs such as food and lodging, the cost of a bus driver and other workers, and so on.)

Procedure:

1. Show Image 2, Jackson Browne. Tell students that in class they will be using math to consider some of the expenses of going on a tour, and will be using musician Jackson Browne as a case study. Explain that Jackson Browne is a singer-songwriter who has been writing and performing music since the 1960s. Jackson Browne’s best-selling album is 1977’s Running on Empty. The album was written and recorded while Browne was on tour, and many of the songs discuss what life is like “on the road.”
2. Pass out Handout – Touring Cost Word Problems to students (Teacher’s Guide here). Tell students they will be working through a few word problems as a class on calculating touring costs, before doing individual and group work. Read problem 1 together as a class, and then ask students:
   • What is the important information needed to complete this equation?
   • What mathematical function needs to be used for this calculation?
   • What formula would be used to solve this problem?
   • How many gallons of gasoline were used to travel between these two places?
3. Have students read aloud problem 2 on the handout. Then ask:
   • What information in the previous equation do you require to solve this problem?
   • What mathematical function needs to be used for this calculation?
   • What were the touring costs for Jackson Browne to go from Red Rocks Amphitheatre to Universal Amphitheatre?
4. Pass out Handout – Calculating Jackson Browne’s 1978 Tour (First Leg) (Teacher’s Guide here). After reading the introduction of the handout aloud to the class, ask students:
   • Is there a single expression that can be used to calculate each row of the worksheet?
   • What is the necessary information needed to calculate each row?
   • What sort of arithmetic functions are needed to create the calculation?
5. As a class, develop the expression needed to calculate touring costs in the handout. Then show students Image 3, Expression to Calculate Touring Costs, and ask students to copy the expression on the appropriate line of the handout.
6. Individually or in small groups, ask students to fill out the chart on the handout using the expression they copied from Image 2. After completing the handout, ask students or student groups to share their answers.
7. Tell students that the costs of bus driver is also a touring expense. Pass out Handout – Calculating Jackson Browne’s 1978 Tour Driver’s Pay (First Leg) (Teacher’s Guide here). After reading the introduction of the handout aloud to the class, ask students:
   • Is there a single expression that can be used to calculate each row of the worksheet?
   • What is the necessary information needed to calculate each row?
   • What sort of arithmetic functions are needed to create the calculation?
8. As a class, develop the expression needed to calculate bus driver costs in the handout. Then show students Image 4, Expression to Calculate Cost of Bus Driver, and ask students to copy the expression on the appropriate line of the handout.
9. Individually or in small groups, asks students to fill out the chart on the handout using the same calculations they went through as a class. Encourage them to see if they can determine the operations needed to do the calculation. After completing the handout, ask students or student groups:
   • What operations did you use to complete these calculations?
   • What answers did you get based on these calculations?
   • What was the total touring cost, in 2021 dollars, for gasoline and a tour bus driver for the first leg of Jackson Browne’s 1978 tour?

Summary Activity:

1. Pass out Handout – Creating a Touring Budget (Teacher’s Guide here).
2. As a group or individually, ask students to complete the worksheet. After students complete the worksheet, have them share their answers. Then ask:
   • What was the biggest touring cost in your budget?
   • What sort of issues did you experience when you began rounding numbers in Part 2? What does this tell you about some of the possible issues using rounding?
   • What might be some other touring costs that the handout didn’t consider?
   • Is there a way to cut down on some of the touring costs?
   • What kinds of risks and unknowns might affect the budget you calculated?
3. Show Image 5, “Running on Empty” lyrics. Tell students to read the lyrics, which are the chorus to the Jackson Browne song, “Running on Empty.” Then ask students:
   • How might these lyrics describe the experience of touring?
   • What feeling might Browne be trying to convey with those lyrics?
   • Are there any words that stand out to you? What might he mean by “running on empty” or “running blind”?
   • Based on the calculations you made for this lesson, do you feel like these lyrics might describe the feelings of being on tour? Why or why not?
   • Based on the lyrics, would you say there are other sorts of touring costs outside money? (For example: exhaustion, emotional strain.)

Extension Activities:

1. Tell students that Jackson Browne is well known for his environmental activism. He was one of the founding members of Musicians United for Safe Energy (MUSE), which opposes nuclear energy. He is also involved in fighting plastic pollution, and has received a Lifetime Environmental Achievement Award in 2010 for his efforts to make his tours more “green.” Complete the worksheet in Extension Activity – Calculating The Environmental Cost of Jackson Browne’s 1978 tour (Teacher’s Guide here) to see how much C02 Browne saves by using other modes of transportation.
2. Imagine that you are a popular music artist who is about to embark on a national tour. Use Extension Activity – Design a Tour Bus to design and sketch your own personalized tour bus, and examine this site for inspiration.

Extension Activity – Calculating The Environmental Cost of Jackson Browne’s 1978 tour Extension Activity – Calculating The Environmental Cost of Jackson Browne’s 1978 tour (Teacher’s Guide) Extension Activity – Design a Tour Bus Handout – Calculating Jackson Browne’s 1978 Tour (First Leg) Handout – Calculating Jackson Browne’s 1978 Tour (First Leg) (Teacher’s Guide) Handout – Calculating Jackson Browne’s 1978 Tour Driver’s Pay (First Leg) Handout – Calculating Jackson Browne’s 1978 Tour Driver’s Pay (First Leg) (Teacher’s Guide) Handout – Creating a Touring Budget Handout – Creating a Touring Budget (Teacher’s Guide) Handout – Touring Cost Word Problems Handout – Touring Cost Word Problems (Teacher’s Guide)