WAVES: An Integrated STEM and Music Program for Fifth Grade Students (RTP, Strand 2)

This paper describes the development, implementation, and analysis of a program for fifth grade students that tightly integrates STEM concepts with musical performance by an acclaimed percussion ensemble. The WAVES program was offered as a half-day event during the spring of 2014 attended by over 350 fifth graders from 3 local schools and comprised three main activities: (1) hands-on, museum-style exhibits and demonstrations in the engineering building, (2) small group sessions facilitated by undergraduates with discussion and hands-on activities, (3) a concert where all 350 fifth graders accompanied the artists-in-residence on custom instruments designed and built by undergraduates for the performance of a classical music work composed by the artists specifically for this educational event. Introduction Fifth grade academic standards for music in Indiana call for an understanding of the “relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts,” specifically citing examples in mathematics. Neither the standards for mathematics nor science (the state does not have fifth grade engineering standards), however, require making connections between these disciplines and the arts. The WAVES project (Wonder, Arts, Vibration, Engineering, Science) at the University of Notre Dame, seeks to promote a better appreciation and understand of both the STEM disciplines and the Arts through their integration. Specifically, through an event centered upon a musical performance by an acclaimed percussion ensemble Third Coast Percussion that is artist-in-residence at the university, WAVES demonstrates how experimentation and analysis—typically associated with the sciences—and creative design—typically associated with the arts— figure strongly in both domains. The WAVES program was offered as a half-day event, shown in Figure 1, during the spring of 2014 attended by over 350 fifth graders from 3 local schools and comprised three main activities: (1) hands-on, museum-style exhibits and demonstrations in the engineering building, (2) small group sessions facilitated by undergraduates with discussion and hand-on activities, (3) a concert where all 350 fifth graders accompanied Third Coast Percussion on custom instruments designed and built by undergraduates for the performance of a classical music work composed by Third Coast specifically for this educational event.