Subject: Science

Student Edition:
Palm Oil – The Environmental Impact

Grades: Middle
Subjects: Civics, Science

lesson:
Palm Oil – The Environmental Impact

Grades: Middle
Subjects: Civics, Science

How have palm oil plantations impacted indigenous communities in Indonesia and the global climate as a whole, and how have activists and musicians spread awareness about the issue?

lesson:
What is a Mӧbius Strip?

Grades: Elementary 4-6, Elementary K-3
Subjects: Art/Design, Math, Science

What is a Mӧbius strip, how do you create one, and what can it represent?

lesson:
Mountaintop Removal Mining in Appalachia

Grades: Elementary 4-6, High, Middle
Subjects: General Music, Science, STEAM

What is mountaintop removal, how does it affect the environment and people’s health?

Trace It Back:
Mickey Hart

Subjects: Art/Design, General Music, Math, Science

Student Edition:
The Science of Sound

Grades: Middle
Subjects: Science

lesson:
The Science of Sound

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Science, STEAM

What is sound, and how are its characteristics explained scientifically?

Student Edition:
“Here Comes the Sun”

Grades: Elementary K-3
Subjects: Art/Design, Science, Social Emotional Learning, Social Studies/History

Student Edition:
The Roots of Surf Sound

Grades: Elementary K-3, Middle
Subjects: ELA, Science, Social Studies/History

Student Edition:
Science and Civics of the Flint Water Crisis

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: ELA, General Music, Science, Social Emotional Learning

Student Edition:
The Evolution of Sound Recording

Grades: High
Subjects: General Music, Science

lesson:
Greta Thunberg, Music, and the Climate Crisis

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: General Music, Science, Social Studies/History

How have musicians helped spread climate activist Greta Thunberg’s message?

lesson:
Singer-Songwriters and the Environmental Movement (Elementary Version)

Grades: Elementary 4-6
Subjects: Art/Design, Science, Social Studies/History

How did the singer-songwriters of the 1960s and 70s address the concerns of the environmental movement?

lesson:
Loudspeakers, PA Systems, and the “Wall of Sound”

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: CTE, General Music, Science, STEAM

What is a PA system, how does it work, and how were the Grateful Dead pioneers in live sound technology?

lesson:
Feeling the Vibrations

Grades: Elementary 4-6, Elementary K-3, Middle
Subjects: Science, Social Emotional Learning, STEAM

How did the Grateful Dead make their concerts more accessible to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) community?

lesson:
Confronting the Climate Crisis

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High, Middle
Subjects: Science, STEAM

How can society lower the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere?

lesson:
The Science and Civics of the Flint Water Crisis

Grades: Elementary 4-6, Middle
Subjects: Civics, Science, Social Studies/History, STEAM

What is the Flint water crisis, and why did it occur?

lesson:
Distortion: The Sound of Rock and Roll’s Menacing Spirit

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: CTE, General Music, Science, Social Studies/History, STEAM

What is distortion, and how did it become a desired guitar effect in Rock and Roll?

lesson:
The Guitar: A Musical Transducer

Grades: Elementary 4-6, Middle
Subjects: CTE, General Music, Science, STEAM

How can the guitar help us understand the scientific principle of transduction?

lesson:
Cleaning up the Plastic Beach (Elementary School Version)

Grades: Elementary 4-6, Middle
Subjects: Science, STEAM

What is plastic, how is it harmful for the environment, and how can it be used more responsibly?

lesson:
Cleaning up the Plastic Beach (Middle School/High School Version)

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Art/Design, Science, Social Studies/History, STEAM

How is plastic made, how does it affect our marine environments, and how can plastic waste be eliminated?

lesson:
Making Music Videos with a Homemade Projector

Grades: Elementary 4-6, Middle
Subjects: CTE, Science, STEAM

How can one reproduce the effects seen in the music video for Zedd, Maren Morris, and Grey’s song “The Middle” using a homemade projector?

lesson:
The Cassette Tape Offers New Possibilities

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: CTE, Science, Social Studies/History, STEAM

How did the cassette tape change the audience’s experience by allowing the listener to record, compile and disseminate music?

lesson:
Sound Waves, Analog Synthesis and Popular Culture

Grades: All Ages, AP/Honors/101, Elementary 4-6, High, Middle
Subjects: CTE, General Music, Science, STEAM

How did synthesizers allow musicians to create new sounds and how did those sounds reflect American culture throughout the 20th century?

lesson:
Recording and Producing the Voice

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: CTE, General Music, Science, STEAM

How have singers responded as advances in studio recording techniques have enabled increased technological “perfection”?

lesson:
How Records and Radio Shaped American Culture

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: CTE, General Music, Science, STEAM

How did changes in the technology of record manufacturing effect popular music, radio, and the people who consumed both?

lesson:
The Impact of the Electric Guitar

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: CTE, General Music, Science, STEAM

How did the electrification, amplification and design of the guitar facilitate its emergence as a dominant instrument of popular music?

lesson:
Multitracking in the Countercultural 1960s

Grades: High
Subjects: CTE, General Music, Science, STEAM

How did The Beatles’ use of cutting edge recording technology and studio techniques both reflect and shape the counterculture of the 1960s?

lesson:
The Evolution of Sound Recording

Grades: All Ages, High, Middle
Subjects: CTE, General Music, Science, STEAM

How did multitrack recording technologies enable musicians to create a form of music that could only be realized in the studio?

lesson:
The Birth of the Microphone

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: CTE, General Music, Science, STEAM

How did the development of microphones in the 20th century change the way people make and listen to music?

lesson:
The History of Music Videos

Grades: High
Subjects: Art/Design, CTE, General Music, Science, Social Studies/History

How has the relation between sound and image shifted through the history of recorded music, and how did the rise of MTV bring that relationship to a culmination of sorts?

lesson:
The Birth of the Electric Guitar

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High
Subjects: CTE, Science, Social Studies/History, STEAM

How did the electric guitar transform Blues music from the 1940s forward?