This task aimed to apply some of the things we’ve learned about Percentages, Data and Algebra within the context of music. Here’s as it was given to the class.
I only wanted to do this for 2 lessons hence I chose the song and gathered the resources, even though I knew the girls could do that. The girls all love Taylor Swift and are learning to play the guitar in Music. I also knew that they’ve used all the ICT tools mentioned except for Wordle which some had Java problems with, WordItOut was a great alternative. In fact, the girls found the most challenging part of this task is the mathematical component, i.e. finding patterns and expressing patterns using Algebra.
Note: This was not an assessment task, a mere immersion and contextualisation of maths, with some ICT integration. Not everyone submitted their work but pictures from those who did can be viewed on the class website.
Here’s my work in progress using a different song, Love Story just to give you an idea.
1. Get the lyrics of the song
2. Create a word cloud via Wordle; save as a jpg in Paint or PhotoShop. What are the most common words?
3. Have a copy of the lyrics in Word to count the number of words. Did Wordle get the percentages right?
Option 1 4. Use algebra to express the patterns and rules you see 5. Create a snapshot of your algebra rules; save as a jpg in Paint so your maths symbols look right on your poster
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Option 2 4. Write 2 algebraic rules, e.g. 3x + 1, and show as a pattern in pictures
5. Save your rules and patterns as a jpg so your maths symbols look right on your poster
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6. Put it all together into a poster using Publisher or PowerPoint with: (1) Word Cloud, (2) Lyrics, (3) Algebra rules, (4) a poster title, (5) 1-5 photos/images
7. Save and Upload to the Posters document library; use your first names as a filename
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Tally the guitar chords used in the song. How many chords are there? Are there chord patterns?
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Create a Frequency Distribution Table and a Pie Chart in Excel. What is the mode?
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Add your pie chart to your original poster
Option 1 Save a copy of the song (mp3) to your desktop. 4. Import the song into Audacity and play with the Tempo. Create 3 mp3 versions of a 15-second grab: (1) original (2) faster (3) slower; you can choose the percentages but keep track of the numbers. What happens when you change the tempo? 5. Create a snapshot of your changed music and add to your poster. In textboxes, describe the changed music. Delete the song from your desktop. |
Option 2 (especially Music students) 4. Looking at the music sheets, find 3 – 4 mathematical patterns, e.g. Rhythm, Tempo and note values 5. Crop images and describe using both your knowledge of maths and music. Add to your poster. For example: This bar has many notes, each one is played at 16th of a beat. Play 4 sixteenth notes or semiquavers for the time it takes to play a quarter note or crotchet. All the notes add up to 4 beats because…. |