place for them to answer this question. They make lists of physical and personality traits that include
things like tall, athletic, helpful, friendly, freckled, strong, and a multitude of others. You could also do
this as a class brainstorming activity and ask a more general question such as, “What characteristics
can we use to describe people?” I like having students answer it individually, however, because it not
only gets them into the mindset of describing characteristics, it gives me insight into how they see
themselves.
Once we’ve shared some of these characteristics and
discussed them, we start to make the connection with science
standards and the knowledge that some characteristics are
hereditary and reside in our genes. We spend a very short time
on DNA, genes, chromosomes, and genomes - just enough to
understand their relationship to each other. We see that DNA
provides “data” for genes, which string together into
chromosomes. The chromosomes then group into genomes.
The main idea I want students to remember is that a genome
contains all the characteristics that go into creating an
organism. If you are teaming with a science teacher to teach
this unit, you may want to go much further into this content.
At this point, we link this knowledge to something most
students know well - music streaming services. Specifically,
services like Pandora, where a person can choose an artist or
song to create a playlist of similar music. As mentioned earlier,
Pandora developed the Music Genome Project to classify music
by its characteristics. Just as a human genome contains the
characteristics of each person, a music genome contains the
characteristics of a piece of music. By matching certain characteristics - or elements - of music, a
station is created that the listener will likely enjoy. I have students break into groups of two or three and
make a list of the characteristics they believe could be used to describe music. When I tell students the
Music Genome Project describes up to 450 characteristics for each piece of music they are usually
motivated to think of more.
Students usually name specific characteristics like fast/slow, loud/quiet, and a multitude of genres. I
help them put these specific characteristics into categories until we narrow them down for our work in
class to the main elements of music - tempo, dynamics, rhythm, melody, timbre, form, tonality, and
texture. We also add characteristics like style/genre and place/time of origin.
We listen to selected pieces of music together for students to practice identifying and describing what
they hear in a listening matrix. In effect, they are listing the characteristics of the music genome. Since
STEAMed Magazine
8
July 2016 Edition