Monday, November 16, 2009

Is "They Might Be Giants" The Next "School House Rock?"

When I was a kid, songs from the School House Rock collection: "Conjunction Junction" and "I'm Just a Bill" reenforced good sentence structure and taught me how a bill becomes a law. Those songs also taught me that music can make learning a lot more fun. It's been several decades since School House Rock produced hits like, "Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here!" but recently, the music group "They Might Be Giants" released a song aimed at teaching kids a little science.

Their new song, "Meet the Elements" is a great way to kick off a science unit on the Periodic Table of the Elements. Thanks to the creative minds of this talented, albeit quirky, music group, even the most intimidated and apprehensive learners can learn a little something new in this upbeat, fun, and unique introduction to the elements. Music can be such a great tool for student engagement. Show this video to your students. Challenge your students to make their own song about an academic topic and maybe they'll be the next School House Rock, or They Might Be Giants.

1 comment:

Richard Hale said...

Buzz, why have I not come across this earlier? I'll show this to my students on Monday in preparation for the CST (Science). Thanks...this just goes to show me that I just have to visit TWIED more often! Richard