Bio-Music:
Dr. Patricia Gray and Dr. David Teachout, UNC-Greensboro and Dr. Eric Wiebe and Dr. Sarah Carrier, NC State University

BioMusic is a new field of research in science and music that explores the musical sounds in all species. In this context, work is underway to understand music-making as a process (an action) where participants co-create meaning by using sound and time. BioMusic studies musical structures of sound and time across species lines by drawing on knowledge from both music and the sciences. For instance, musical pitches, rhythms, musical memory and acoustics - are used to understand how we and other species produce musical communication and cultural bonding. BioMusic research combines concepts of musicology and music theory with science research in a wide variety of fields such as neuroscience, biology, zoology, environmental science, physics, psychology, mathematics, and anthropology.

These Kenan Fellowships are part of a new, groundbreaking National Science Foundation project – UBEATS – that will explore innovative ways to use music, science, and animal communication in the elementary grades. The Fellowships are structured into 2 teams. Each team will consist of an elementary music teacher and a teacher interested in math and science from the same school. No applicant is expected to be an expert in BioMusic at the beginning of the project. Indeed, each teacher pair will work together with BioMusic researchers and with university mentors in music and science education to develop an understanding of BioMusic, and to devise ways to work collaboratively to develop modules which integrate the ‘science of music’ based in the natural world. These modules will be incorporated into science and general music classes to stimulate new approaches and to help integrate new knowledge into both arts and sciences. Two pairs of teachers will be selected to work with Mentors from NC State and/or UNC Greensboro.

Examples

Applicants are asked to expand creatively on these examples below or develop their own ideas for a project direction. Each applicant must submit an individual application and project proposal.

A. Ancient Music Making: A Neanderthal Site

Explore a 40,000 year old Neanderthal Site and learn about the world of Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens, including the plant and animal life that was common as well as the tools that were available at the time. A common thread across all cultures through all times has been the use of music as emotional expression, aesthetic enjoyment, and as a physical response for social purposes such as entertainment and for group bonding. In this module students will discover how music was possibly created and experienced in a cave 40,000 years ago. Specifically, students will create ‘ancient’ musical artifacts such as flutes, percussion instruments and whistles, and explore how to make musical sounds on these kinds of instruments that enable the group to work and live together, with an emphasis on the concepts of pitch/frequency, rhythmic entrainment, acoustics, and sound waves across distances.

B. Ocean Songs: Humpback Whales

Explore the ocean’s sounds, and discover how sound waves travel through water at great distances. Learn how sounds are recorded – hydrophones – and discover how Humpback and fin whales use sound waves to communicate with song as they travel through the oceans. In this module, students will explore properties of sound and water. Students will also explore whale songs using sonograms and recorders to identify phrase structure, theme and variation techniques, and rhyming techniques used by whales. Furthermore, they will explore how song is used as part of mating and communication within societies and similarities with other animals.