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Playing the Cardboard Dulcimer
Second graders create cardboard dulcimers. They discover that sound is produced by vibrating strings and analyze the pitch produced by changing the sizes and length of the strings of the instrument. They also discuss the history of the...
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The Vibrational Nature of Sound
Learners explore the vibrational nature of sound. In this science lesson plan, students gain an understanding of sound frequency, pitch, and conduction using the string telephone, tuning fork and musical glasses experiments.
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Mathematical Models with Applications: The Sounds of Music
Students use an electronic data-collection device to model the sound produced by a guitar string. They identify the graph of a periodic situation and use the graph to determine the period and frequency of sound waves.
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Attributes of Accuracy
Middle schoolers explain necessity in using accurate instruments when measuring, and how measurements can be checked for accuracy. They make a six-inch ruler, design, test, and evaluate a system to measure work, and produce a table and...
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Creating a Song
Students work cooperatively to compose a twenty measure song using the computer program GarageBand. Guidelines for the student compositions are available and include instrumentation and specific length.
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Wave Motion
Students observe and identify various waves. In this wave motion lesson, student use a Slinky, noise, people, and musical instruments to create waves and observe how each type of wave moves.
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Ooooh, The Oud
Young scholars listen to a performance of the instrument, oud. After watching a video, they discover how many parts of the world it is used in and locate the countries on a map. They compare and contrast the oud with other instruments...
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KEYBOARDS
Second graders become familiar with appearance and characteristic sound of piano, identify piano as part of percussion family, find middle C on the keyboard, observe scale, chord, and "broken" chord, and listen to a well-known classical...
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VH1 Classic Presents: Paul McCartney: Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, Lesson 3
Students in a guitar class perform the Beatles song, Eleonor Rigby and study it's melodic and harmonic structures. They discover the process of arranging the song for a 4-part guitar ensemble.
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What's the Difference?
Learners explore the differences between acoustic and digital pianos. In this music lesson, students listen to an acoustic piano and digital piano. Learners play both types of pianos and discuss the differences.
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CHARTING A COURSE
Students model how a gyroscope works with string, an old phonograph record and crayon.
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Sounds Like Science - Jamboree
Students create a delightful-sounding ensemble. They explore the subjective distinctions between noise and music. They use jars, buckets, boxes, strings, rackets, frames, string, rubber bands and bottles to make their own jamboree.
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Peter and the Wolf
First graders integrate music and fairy tales to improve their listening and analytical skills. In this music and fairy tales lesson, 1st graders view and listen to the musical fairy tale 'Peter and the Wolf' using a SmartBoard. Students...
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Searching the Attic
Students investigate an attic or basement to "discover" family artifacts. They develop a grid map using string, create a naming system for the grid, and analyze items of interest.
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Sizing Up Sound
Sixth graders are introduced to the concepts of sound waves and frequency. As a class, they listen to the differences between different types of instruments. To end the lesson, they practice identifying low and high pitches and playing...
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"Laideronette, Empress of the Pagoda" from"Mother Goose Suite" by Maurice Ravel
Students are introduced to the active teacher, composer and pianist Maurice Ravel and his masterpiece "Laideronette, Empress of the Pagoda", from Mother Goose Suite by Maurice Ravel. They utilize aural skills to notate the rhythm of the...
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Investigation of Timbre
Students design an experiment to analyze the timbre of different instruments. In this physics lesson, students analyze the missing quality in sound. They discuss their results in class.
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Enslaved African Americans and Expressions of Freedom
Students analyze a painting from African-American culture to determine its meaning. Reading slave spirituals, they discover what live was like for African-Americans who were enslaved in the South. They draw conclusions about their desire...
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Who Wants To Be A Mini Maestro?
Students are introduced to classical music. They listen to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. They interview each other in regards to their feelings about the music and the paintings they produced while listening to the piece.
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Comparing Data
Eighth graders create a survey, gather data and describe the data using measures of central tendency (mean, median and mode) and spread (range, quartiles, and interquartile range). Students use these measures to interpret, compare and...
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Lesson 1 Activity 1: Tools of the Ancients
Students examine how Christopher Columbus determined his latitude.
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Pumpkin Play
Have you ever examined a pumpkin and estimated the number of lines it has? In this math lesson, students count the actual number of lines, record and graph the results. They investigate the circumference, weight and buoyancy of the...
Polar Trec
Playground Profiling—Topographic Profile Mapping
The Kuril islands stretch from Japan to Russia, and the ongoing dispute about their jurisdiction prevents many scientific research studies. Scholars learn to create a topographic profile of a specific area around their schools. Then they...
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Zipping Through Our Solar System and Beyond
Launch your class on an exploration of the solar system. Learners construct solar system models to scale and get a better understanding of our place in the vast void of space. This is a great way for them to cement their understanding of...