STEAM Technologies Centers 1

Charissa Piccotti-Fanny
Music Classroom STEAM Centers
The Science of Sound Instrument Families
In this music class setting, students have the opportunity to study the science of sound,
including sound waves, pitch, volume, and engineering of instruments. The opportunity to
employ STEAM centers in this classroom will allow students the opportunity to expand their
learning. By including tech enhanced learning in the music classroom, students have the
opportunity to expand their knowledge and experience hands on, real world problem solving.
For this unit, the introduction and visualizing sound waves would still begin as a full
group lesson. For this portion of the lesson, I demonstrate the effect of sound waves by using a
tuning fork and submersing it in water. Students are allowed the opportunity to try for
themselves, as well as trying different ways to amplify the sound. This will take place in the
center of the room, using flexible seating centered around the projector and whiteboard area, in
the open space in the center of the floor. Centers for this unit would include lecture, research,
experiment, and a makerspace. These centers are included in the diagram and descriptions to
follow.
STEAM Centers Classroom

4* ***
5*
Closet
Cabinets

Sink/Counter
Tinker Table

3*
Cabinet

1* projector 2*
Materials
Maker

Doorway Doorway Closet

Whiteboard ** Piano

In this classroom, the space is divided by an immobile cabinet, as well as a large closet
and built in shelves. Immobile objects are shown in blue on the above diagram. These objects,
STEAM Technologies Centers 2

along with the overall size of the room and availability of outlets and furniture drove the
placement of centers and equipment.
The middle area of the classroom must contain flexible seating, as this room doubles as
the band room, and large tables cannot take up the floor space. In this STEAM centers layout, the
center of the room will be the lecture center. This center, shown in green on the above diagram,
will include use of the projector for students to view the TED Ed lesson (an access technology)
The Physics of Playing Guitar and tablets for each student to answer the accompanying
questions with the video. Seating in the green area will include flexible seating choices within
the noted areas (1*, 2*, 3*). Seating choices include crates, stools, carpet squares, and beanbags.
Tablets are stored in the cart (**) next to the whiteboard.
The large kidney table in the rear of the room (4*) will be home to the research center.
This center will include laptops along the kidney table for students to research instrument
families. Students will follow a Symbaloo Learning path (access technology), housed on our
class website. Students will then access facilitative technology, such as Glogster or Thinglink to
organize and share their findings in an interactive multimedia presentation.
The triangle table (5*) and laptop cart will be the site of the experiment center. The
access technology used for these experiments is the Google Chrome Musiclab. The Google
Chrome Musiclab allows students to visualize, hear, and manipulate sounds and music effects.
These two centers share the laptop cart (***) along the back wall. This is the only wall in the
classroom equipped with sufficient outlets to house a class set of laptops. The orange table
borders the closet in the classroom which provides a secure storage space for headphones for
each user.
The music makerspace will be housed on the other side of the immobile cabinet (yellow
tinker table). This space is slightly smaller than the average classroom, and equipped with an
oval table, shelf, and sink. The makerspace would provide hands-on experience for students to
build and play instruments. Students will be given materials and specifications, and allowed the
chance to experiment and tinker to create new instruments from the wind, string, and/or
percussion families. Specifications will include instructions to create a pan pipe with soda bottles
by filling with varying levels of water, tensioning strings to create pitch on a string instrument by
using rubber bands, and creating reeds by cutting varying lengths of drinking straws to buzz and
create sound. Students will also be provided a variety of materials to tinker and create wind,
string, and percussion instruments of their own. These materials will be housed on the Maker
Materials shelf, along the wall next to the sink, Because this space is somewhat separated from
the rest of the classroom, students will have the freedom to move and create without disrupting
students in other centers. This center is also located near the sink for ease of clean-up and use of
the water in creating instruments.
These centers will work in conjunction with full group instruction on sound waves and
pitch to give students a working understanding of the families of instruments and the science of
sound.
Summary
STEAM Technologies Centers 3

STEM and STEAM lessons can be supported and expanded with classroom technology in
several forms. These technologies can include laptop or desktop computers, tablets or mobile
devices, or classroom tech such as projectors, document cameras, or subject specific technology.
Once students have access to these technologies in the classroom, applications can be used to
enhance learning. In this plan, students will have access to both tablets and laptops, as well as
hands on materials. Laptops (20) are housed on a cart, which is shared between two classrooms.
Tablets (8) are housed on a small cart within the classroom and available every day.

Because this room doubles as the band room, flexible seating is required, but also has the
added benefit of being a large room with soundproofing panels. This will allow students in
various centers to work without worry of being disrupted by the noise from other areas of the
room. The choices in center placement were based on the physical layout of the room,
availability of power sources and sound equipment, placement of the sink, and necessity of a
shared room.

Resources

https://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-physics-of-playing-guitar-oscar-fernando-perez

https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com

http://teachingwithorff.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Lesson-Plan-Chrome-Music-Lab-
Rhythm-handout.pdf
www.glogster.com
www.thinglink.com
www.symbaloo.edu
Magnuson, A. (n.d.). Learning Centers Part 2: How to Manage Them. Retrieved August 01,
2017, from https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/blog-posts/allie-magnuson/learning-
centers-part-2-how-to-manage-them/
Wade, M. (2016, March 29). Visualizing 21st-Century Classroom Design. Retrieved August 01,
2017, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/visualizing-21st-century-classroom-design-
mary-wade