Friday, February 27, 2009

Science in the house, yo; Olympia, WA; 2/27/09

Rap Music Brings Science to Urban Youth LiveScience.com - New York,NY,USA
As I watched Duke capture the attention of his classmates, I realized I could similarly use rap music to connect urban kids with forests — something that would be difficult for me to do alone without such a device. So soon after watching Duke's performance, I incorporated a recording of his nature rap song into my classroom presentations to inner city youth. To my delight, this technique worked every time!
No sooner would I start playing Duke's song to a class than even the most disengaged child would invariably snap to wide-eyed, wide-eared attention. Suddenly, these urban kids, who had previously had little first-hand exposure or interest in nature wanted to learn about forest creatures, like snakes, strangler figs and gliding arboreal mammals.

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