By Rachael Carnes
In a 2007 inclusive arts-based residency pilot project, Sparkplug Dance Educational Resources worked with Springfield Oregon's Brattain Elementary to integrate arts learning into the recognized regional curriculum: The Physics of Sound.
Brattain Elementary is noted as the lowest socio-economic elementary school in our region, and we demonstrated that arts learning modalities can assist in making learning fun and exciting, especially for students with disadvantages.
Our mission was to excite and engage students about making sound and moving sound: Length and pitch, Tension and pitch, Sounds in our natural world: Animals, natural places and events, Exploring the variety of sounds in human communication: Writing, music, rhythmic games and song, Discriminating and originating sounds through "found" objects and the creation of new instruments
Moving Sound, Sound and vibration, How sound travels, through air, through water, through solids and How sound travels from person to person: Symbolic representations of sounds, motifs and codes.
In order to make a positive impact on the core of every child's education, healthy partnerships between teaching artists and classroom teachers, with the support of administrators and parents, and the community, can help academics and physical activity come together.
As a simple tool to assess the efficacy and enduring lessons in the Brattain residency, we asked the children the same questions before and after the residency began.
Prior to residency: What is music?
* Art, Joy, Listen, Sound
* Science
* To dance, To sing, Movement
* Vibration
* Love
* Tune
* Care
* Calming
* Questions and answers
* Diagrams of sound
What is dance?
* Type of movement, Learning steps, Body movement
* Locomotor
* Tap
* Level
* Past
* Stomping
* Different dance
* Moving to the beat
* Moving to the different beat
What do you learn from dancing?
* Movement is dancing and learning.
* Going to other places around the room.
* You learn from dancing.
* Movements
* Coordination
* Learn how to move your body
* Art
How can you use music to learn other subjects?
* To get a job of singing
* Learn how to dance.
* Get on the radio.
* You can learn about the Halloween song on the radio.
* You learn how to use your voice.
* How can you use dance to learn about other subjects?
* Dancing to the beat.
* You learn other tips of dance.
* If you learn, you can teach dance.
* Learning dance is like learning art.
* To sing., Foot moving
* Sing about school and home.
And after the residency, and the culminating experience, in fact, after several weeks had passed, I returned to Room Five to see the children, to share our pride in their work, and hear their excitement about what they had accomplished.
But had they learned anything about the Physics of Sound? Would they connect to the district's curriculum, or demonstrate that they had mastered any part of the standards through doing this work?
Sure, we could rest assured that they had had fun singing and dancing, but were those learning moments there? Did they last, over these spring weeks? Would the children retain any of their learning?
And I asked the group the same questions: What is music?
* Music is sound, frequency, and movement. Music is amplitude, pitch, and vibration.
* Music is sometimes quiet.
* Music is singing, volume.
* Music is waves
* Music is instruments
* Sounds can be high or low.
What can we learn from doing music?
* We learn about frequency and pitch.
* We learn how sound travels, and how sound waves move.
* We can learn how to dance.
* We can learn about how sound is heard.
* We learn about our voice box.
* We can learn how to sing.
* We learn that high and low goes the same speed.
What is dance?
* Movement
* Dance is an instrument that's in your body.
* Dance makes noise, dance makes sound.
* Dance is communication: Dance lets you tell if someone is happy or mad.
* Dance makes your body healthy by getting exercise.
* Our brain dance helps us focus.
* Dance feels exciting.
* Dance makes us happy.
What can we learn from dancing?
* We learn different moves.
* We learn how to dance.
* We can learn dances from other countries.
* We can learn movement.
* We learn that sound waves travel by touch in all directions.
* We learn about the different qualities of tone color.
* We learn about balancing.
In the above statements, the students demonstrate a range of new vocabulary, but it's not just rote understanding: They eagerly reiterated common ideas in the physics of sound, three full weeks after studying the concepts. Note, too, how they venture into some of the social and emotional territories that the arts provide for the individual and the group, creating a platform for a discussion of social, emotional and physical health. Note how after the residency, the shape of what the art forms are have transformed, from a perspective of audience, to one of arts maker. We're down on the floor playing with blocks, we're engaging. We're dancers, musicians. We're scientists, making inquiries.
As audience members, parents, siblings and visiting grown-ups were energized as students demonstrate their knowledge of science, music, and movement. Witness: A whole body welcoming song from Africa, the Brain Dance, The Amplitude Rap, Rhythm Explorations, The Human Oscilloscope, the Tone Quality Orchestra and the Speed of Sound Testing Speedway.
Question: Does the Speed of Sound change at higher or lower frequencies, or does it remain the same? The kids at Brattain Elementary STILL know the answer!