Bryan Duff, lecturer, Horticulture Section, School of Integrative Plant Science, and a pair of promising teachers in training are teaching film production and the physics of music at Colorado middle school.
In film, students dress up, apply makeup and produce a piece of their own. When they’re done, they’ll be reviewed by a panel of college film students and awards assigned to the best one. Under the surface, it’s a lesson in storytelling and, by extension, writing.
In physics, students look at how instruments are designed to shape sound waves.
“There is so much physics behind music,” said Duff. “It gives it a context they can relate to.”
Looking at a diagram, they can tell you whether a trumpet will make a higher sound with a valve open or shut. To illustrate the point, they make instruments of their own, including bagpipe like glove-o-phones which bring to mind the vuvuzela craze of 2010.
