Fossil Rock Anthem? How Music Videos Can Improve Science Education
By Carolyn Heneghan
Watching music videos in science class? Sign me up!
While their teachers may not play videos from the latest hip-hop or pop star, students may start seeing educational music videos appear in their daily lessons, particularly in the realm of science. As the U.S. places a greater emphasis on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, researchers are looking for new ways to improve the learning process for students in these subjects.As part of that effort, researchers Kate Davis and Greg Cowther from the University of Washington might be onto something. They posit that while music may be one answer to improving learning for some students, videos to accompany that music could have an even greater effect. Davis says, “It makes sense that we shouldn’t teach all kids the same way; we should individualize. We need to provide multiple entry points in all subject matters. Music is a different entry point into scientific concepts.”
The Study and Its Results
According to University Herald, “For the study, researchers set up laptop computers at five science-related outreach events in Washington State. Most targeted students in grades K-12, but adults also participated. Participants in the study ranged from 3 to 76 years old, with a median age of 12. Each person sat in front of a laptop and selected a science-based music video to watch.”
One such video, entitled “Fossil Rock Anthem,” is a parody of the hip-hop song “Party Rock Anthem,” and depicted graphics of fossils and ground striations, drifting continental plates, and even a dancing archaeologist in fun, vibrant graphics set to a catchy tune. The video combined media—music and images—that were not only fun and memorable but that had an educational backbone to them as well.
Before watching the video, study participants took a quiz with four questions related to information in the video in addition to a bonus question not covered by the video. After watching the video, they took the same quiz plus confidence questions.
University Herald reports, “In two-thirds of the music videos (10 out of 15), participants had more correct answers after watching the videos. Quiz scores rose by an average of one more correct answer after watching the videos. The lyrics-only music videos were as beneficial to improving quiz scores as the visually-rich videos.”
Davis and Cowther presented their research, “Sing About Science: Leveraging the Power of Music to Improve Science Education,” at the American Educational Research Association’s annual conference last week.
What These Findings Mean
It is already widely known that music can help students improve memory, boost fact memorization, and aid in the assessment of complex questions as well. Since the days of early civilization and oral tradition, students from preschool to medical school have used rhymes and songs to help them remember pieces of information, sometimes even in vast amounts. This has been proven by many research studies to be an effective way to learn and retain new information of all kinds, science-related or otherwise.
Besides simply remembering facts, music can also play an important role in memory by triggering emotional responses, which music inherently does. By triggering an emotional response, it is likely that a person will have an easier time remembering what the music was talking about when he or she felt that emotion, thus improving both memorization and comprehension.
Now, with this research, it has been proven that not only can music be applied in the classroom to bolster learning, but music videos have their own value as well—and for some students, particularly those more geared toward visual learning, they could improve their memory and learning even more. Even lyric-only videos improved quiz scores in this study, so this is a viable method that teachers can apply in the classroom to enhance the educational experience for their students.
What to Expect in the Future
As these findings are shared and reproduced, it is likely that more educational music videos will be released by teachers, students and organizations the world over, creating a massive library of music videos for teachers and students to use. These videos will foster further innovation, and they will only get better and more interesting for students with time.
In addition to teachers, students and organizations releasing these videos, you can expect to see musicians themselves contributing to the cause. Many musicians are looking for ways to use their talents for the better good, and this is a perfect way to give back and improve education for others. As musicians are already adept at songwriting and possibly even music video organization, this too could improve the quality of the videos made available to others.
Another application for these music videos is to make a special project out of the creation of a music video for students themselves. This would give the student a chance to immerse him or herself in the subject matter while creating a song and possibly accompanying images that illustrate the concept to be shared with other students. Students or groups of students could present these to the class, and the whole class would be able to benefit from the presenters’ immersion in that subject matter.
Educational music videos have been around for some time, but with research like this, more videos are destined to gain momentum in the educational sphere. In or out of school, expect to see videos like these popping up on YouTube, educational sites and beyond over the next few years. Who knew science could be so fun?
