Subject: STEAM

Student Edition:
The Water Walker: Indigenous Wisdom and Water Contamination

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

In what ways do Indigenous views of water align with scientific views, and how do Indigenous activists use artistic expression to advocate for water protection?

lesson:
The Water Walker: Indigenous Wisdom and Water Contamination

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

In what ways do indigenous views of water align with scientific views, and how do indigenous activists use artistic expression to advocate for water protection?

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?

lesson:
The Science of Sound

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Science, STEAM

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

Unit Plan:
Civic Environmentalism

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Civics, Social Studies/History, STEAM

Civic environmentalism is a collective action to address critical environmental issues and implement solutions through democratic processes that will result in an improved and sustainable community. Through six lessons, students identify, analyze, and explore specific details and events related to the origins of the environmental movement in the United States...

Student Edition:
Math with Jackson Browne

Grades: All Ages, Elementary K-3, Middle
Subjects: General Music, Math, STEAM

Student Edition:
Feeling the Vibrations

Grades: Elementary K-3, Middle
Subjects: CTE, ELA, General Music, Social Emotional Learning, STEAM

Student Edition:
Recording the Human Voice

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: General Music, STEAM

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

Grades: All Ages
Subjects: General Music, STEAM

Student Edition:
Confronting the Climate Crisis

Grades: High
Subjects: STEAM

Student Edition:
Cleaning Up the Plastic Beach

Grades: Elementary K-3, Middle
Subjects: ELA, STEAM

lesson:
Calculating Pitch

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Math, STEAM

How do musical instruments produce different pitches, and what variables allow you to calculate the pitch of an instrument?

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:
Designing an Electric Guitar with Shapes

Grades: Elementary K-3
Subjects: Art/Design, Math, STEAM

How can shapes be used to design an electric guitar?

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:
Designing Album Covers with Color Theory

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Art/Design, CTE, STEAM

What is the science behind color theory, and how is it used in fashion and album cover design?

lesson:
Hometown Documentaries

Grades: AP/Honors/101, High, Middle
Subjects: Art/Design, CTE, General Music, Social Studies/History, STEAM

How can music help tell the story of your hometown?

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:
The Beatles Work Towards Success

Grades: High, Middle
Subjects: Math, Social Studies/History, STEAM

How did The Beatles' rigorous work schedule during the years 1960-63 build their strengths as performers, as musicians, and as a band?

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 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:
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 Blues and the Great Migration

Grades: High
Subjects: Social Studies/History, STEAM

How did the Great Migration spread Southern culture, helping to give the Blues a central place in American popular music?

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?