6 ways to use SciTunes in Lessons
Most students enjoy it when their teacher does something a little different to break up the lesson and SciTunes music videos are great for this, but they are designed to be much more than a bit of fun or an attention grabber. Here are six ways that the SciTunes music videos and accompanying worksheets can be used in the classroom to enhance learning, making the most of a song-based approach.
1. Introducing a topic
Our songs cram a topic’s worth of information into three or four minutes, so spending a lesson teaching the song will give the students an idea of what is coming up, introduce new language and give the topic context.
Play the music video as a starter, and then go through the song verse by verse. For each verse, briefly explain the concepts using demos, diagrams and discussion where appropriate, then play that verse of the music video and ask your students to fill in the blanks on the DART activity. As a plenary they can complete the other tasks on the DART activity. If you have time, finish the lesson with a sing-along to help embed the lyrics.
2. Alongside a scheme of work
Repetition is key to embedding memories, but repeating information can get boring. People regularly listen to songs on repeat though because music affects the brain in many different ways, meaning we get bored of it less easily.
As students settle down at the beginning of each lesson throughout the teaching of a topic, play the music video in the background. The lesson objectives for each lesson will probably align with the lyrics of one of the verses, so as a plenary, you can teach that verse and get them to fill in the blanks on the DART activity. By the end of the topic, the song will be completely embedded and so will the information, making it easier to recall months later in the exam.
3. Revising a topic
Exams are coming, you have very few lessons left and you need to revise 5 topics in one lesson. Simples! Give each student the multiple choice quiz for a topic, show the video, and then ask them to answer the questions. Go through the answers, and then repeat for the other videos.
4. Extended creative projects
If your students are motivated by doing creative tasks, you could set them the task of making their own videos to our songs. Get them to explain the science in whichever way they want. They can animate, dance, perform science demos, use found footage, make a slide show, or anything else they can think of. This will give the students who identify as artistic and not sciencey a chance to shine in the science classroom.
5. Stretching the separate science students
We haven’t included the extra content for the separate science GCSEs in most of our songs because it would make our songs too long, but you can download karaoke versions of the songs so that students can write their own verses. This is great way to assess whether your students understood the lesson content because they have to reproduce it in their own words and in verse. As a result, this task encourages deep learning of material. However, it can be a struggle and requires some time, so we suggest setting it for homework.
6. Cross-curricular learning
If you can convince your class’ music teachers to teach them to play the songs then your students will be learning science in their music lessons too! We have downloadable lyrics and the chords, and we’d love to hear your class’ interpretations.
If you have any other ideas for using SciTunes in the classroom, we’d love to hear them!