Space-Themed Music Builds STEM and Music Skills
October 20, 2020 • By Laurie Orth, Guest Contributor, Music Educator
Join Us for the ISSRDC 2020 STEM Plenary Session
We invite you to attend this year’s STEM plenary session on Day 3 of the ISSRDC(Abbreviation: ISSRDC) The only conference dedicated exclusively to showcasing how the International Space Station is advancing science and technology and enabling a robust and sustainable market in LEO. This annual conference brings together leaders from the commercial sector, U.S. government agencies, and academic communities to foster innovation and discovery onboard the space station. ISSRDC is hosted by the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, manager of the ISS National Lab; NASA; and the American Astronautical Society. 2020 Online Series. During this virtual session on Thursday, October 22, we celebrate 20 years of students doing experiments on the ISSInternational Space Station. Discussion will focus on the impact these experiences have on students and on the future of student experiments in space. The session is free to attend, but registration is required.
For more information on the session, view the agenda. To attend, register here.
What happens when you combine two contrasting subjects like space exploration and music sight reading on the recorder? You embark on a cosmic journey of epic proportion while you develop skills in both disciplines.
Laurie Orth at the National STEM Academy – Museum of Aviation, Robbins AFB, Georgia.
Media Credit: Clare Swinford
In 2017, I had the out-of-the-box idea to bring space exploration into my middle school music classroom. I am a space enthusiast, and my students were Star Wars fans. In an effort to meet my students where they were and liven up these classes, I created original recorder music and songs about space exploration. Of course, I think space and rockets are super cool. Soon, my students did as well.
What started as a single lesson about SpaceX Falcon 9 grid fins and a 16-measure recorder piece suddenly turned in to a weekly endeavor. Each week, I wrote new recorder music for my students. They quickly became enthralled in the innovative material and were ready to learn their music lesson because of it. They wanted to learn more about the space concepts we discussed in class, and they were eager to research them online. They practiced more at home so they could progress to the next song, see the next picture, and learn more about space. Their music sight reading improved enormously, and they became space fans too.
We used colorful images of rocket launches, the International Space Station (ISS), spacewalks (called EVAs), and dwarf planets, to name a few. My students were excited to create rhyming lyrics for songs about the Moon and what happens when you vomit in space. They were curious to learn what Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield and NASANational Aeronautics and Space Administration astronaut Scott Kelly had to say on the subject of adjusting to life in the microgravityThe condition of perceived weightlessness created when an object is in free fall, for example when an object is in orbital motion. Microgravity alters many observable phenomena within the physical and life sciences, allowing scientists to study things in ways not possible on Earth. The International Space Station provides access to a persistent microgravity environment. environment on the ISS.
Laurie Orth in KSC Rocket Garden
Media Credit: Laurie Orth
My middle school students engaged 110% in music class. All of them practiced their recorders and researched space exploration topics at home. They explored multiple disciplines, including astronomy, geometry, current spaceflight events, and space transportation. The class sang songs about black holes and Pegasus barges ferrying rocket sections along the Mississippi River to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The weekly music class had become an emotional investment for everyone. The students and I had so much fun!!! We were in the zone.
My students took charge of their own education by actively participating in it. We learned innumerable new things that year. We embraced organic, interdisciplinary, “across the curriculum” science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) learning and sparked unexpected reserves of creativity. This shows that the arts and the sciences can and should coexist to develop creative people. What a year we had in music class. It was out of this world!
Music educator, Laurie Orth, teaches space exploration in her music class. Learn more about her space-themed music at www.laurieorth.com.
Listen to the Space Explorers Anthem here!
