3rd Grade Science of Music

Inquiry Question

To what extent does the understanding of how instruments are played and make sound correlate to the students understanding of energy, sound, and matter?

Project Background

The 3rd grade Science of Music Project is based on the belief that music has an explicit connection to Physical Science. To achieve this end, every student was lead through a series of 7 musical experiments that tied into the Science FOSS curriculum. By the end of this projects every child had the ability to perform, to create, and to listen to music with understanding of how music relates to energy and matter.

Partnership Overview

The vision of El Dorado’s M+MI projects is to enhance student achievement by integrating music learning with other academic areas in partnerships with local arts learning organizations (MuST and SF Opera),partner laboratory schools (Oakland Unified and Ravenswood School District Learning Laboratory Schools), and support and guidance from the Music-in-Education National Consortium (New England Conservatory Research Center).

El Dorado Elementary participated in three action research projects that aligned to this mission. The first project includes the development of the 2nd grade opera, the second project includes the 3rd grade Science of Music Project, and the third project focuses on a 4th grade Mathematical Composing Unit.

As part of the Music-in-Education National Consortium, El Dorado’s Music Learning Leadership Staff (administration, classroom and music teachers) received monthly professional development in a) M+MI curriculum unit design based on fundamental concepts of literacy shared between music and language, b) teaching for transfer strategies, c) music and music integration literacy skill assessment, and d) action research based documentation of student learning through collaboration with MuST, MIENC guided practices consultants, and SF Opera.