Imagine a music classroom where the students have turned the room itself into an instrument; stairs become the keys of a piano, the stage becomes a drum set. The possibilities are limitless when students are able to combine music with elements of science, technology, and engineering.
I am fortunate to work with a diverse community of students who celebrate each other's unique heritage and background.
My students are creative, insightful, and enthusiastic...especially when they arrive in music class! Music is so important to my students, and I want to foster their love of music by striving to continually provide new challenges to keep them motivated and engaged. I feel lucky to have the opportunity to interact with every student in the school at least once per week in music class, and that I get to watch them grow as musicians and as young adults over the course of the 9 years they spend at my school.
My Project
Students love to invent and create new instruments, be it paper plate maracas, shoebox guitars, or bucket drums. With the Makey Makey kits, I can push students' creativity further by pairing music with technology and engineering to enable them to make instruments out of any materials that create an electrical circuit. It's as simple as hooking the Makey Makey up to a school laptop, utilizing an online music creation website - or programming our own - and then connecting the alligator clips from the Makey Makey to conductive materials. Bananas can become a piano, tin foil makes a drumset on the floor, and Play-Doh stuck to the wall sounds like a saxophone. Students will be inventing, programming, and playing, all while making music together.
It is crucial that students have opportunities to explore, invent, and create in school.
Combined with the push for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education in our schools, music creates an ideal way for students to accomplish all of these goals in a unique, engaging, and fun way!
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mr. Marsland and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.