I don't know about you (fellow educators) but I am of the opinion that physics and any kind of learning in general without music is less fun.
I generally like to have some music playing as students file into the classroom, some playing as they exit, and especially some more playing as they are engaged in lab activities.
From my own humble experience, nothing beats watching students grooving to some tunes while they are immersed in physics concepts discovery.
To ensure that such experience is successful I compiled playlists of different kinds. But, the most prominent one is the Physix Playlist whose songs were chosen with a specific set of physics ideas in mind. This would enable the students' imaginations to be tickled in more than one dimensional level. At one level, this acts as a low risk challenge of trying to figure out what are the concepts that the songs are possibly conveying. At another level, this establishes connections between physics and the arts via the beauty of music. And at yet another level, it establishes a better chance for the concepts to be stored in the brain with association with tunes the students care about. Of course, I have no research nor evidence to back up these assertions of mine but the least that can be achieved is my students having fun while learning. And, this in and of itself is sufficient for me to justify the infusion of music in the students' learning experience.
Music appreciation is a subjective matter and everyone of us should have their own playlists. There are a few instances when the students would request that they would have their own songs be played and I generally would concur but with one major condition. I insist that the songs they are asking to be played must be rated G, no bad words nor offensive lyrics. Following is my Physix Playlist that I hope would inspire my fellow educators to come up with their own depending on their own tastes and their own subject matters.
I generally like to have some music playing as students file into the classroom, some playing as they exit, and especially some more playing as they are engaged in lab activities.
From my own humble experience, nothing beats watching students grooving to some tunes while they are immersed in physics concepts discovery.
To ensure that such experience is successful I compiled playlists of different kinds. But, the most prominent one is the Physix Playlist whose songs were chosen with a specific set of physics ideas in mind. This would enable the students' imaginations to be tickled in more than one dimensional level. At one level, this acts as a low risk challenge of trying to figure out what are the concepts that the songs are possibly conveying. At another level, this establishes connections between physics and the arts via the beauty of music. And at yet another level, it establishes a better chance for the concepts to be stored in the brain with association with tunes the students care about. Of course, I have no research nor evidence to back up these assertions of mine but the least that can be achieved is my students having fun while learning. And, this in and of itself is sufficient for me to justify the infusion of music in the students' learning experience.
Music appreciation is a subjective matter and everyone of us should have their own playlists. There are a few instances when the students would request that they would have their own songs be played and I generally would concur but with one major condition. I insist that the songs they are asking to be played must be rated G, no bad words nor offensive lyrics. Following is my Physix Playlist that I hope would inspire my fellow educators to come up with their own depending on their own tastes and their own subject matters.
Please, feel free to suggest songs of your own that are not listed in my now playlist in the comments section of this post. Thank you and may groovy Physix and imaginative learning/teaching be with you!
Way to engage imagination! Happy to RT!
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