whether you've ever gone down the rabbit gap that is OK move's YouTube channel,then you know how insanely cool the band's music videos are.certain, Ok move is a rock band. Their songs get on the radio, and they've played sold-out shows,but the group is far better known for their really complex and elaborate videos.
There's the one (viewed 41 million times) where they're all dancing on treadmills, jumping back and forth in time to the music. Another (12 million views) where the band is flying — and singing and dancing — in an anti-gravity plane; they open a box of balls and the miniature spheres just float through space, and suspended in air.
All those millions of viewers? It turns out many of them are teachers and their students."I subliminally brainwashed my kids into being OK move fans," jokes Jennie Magiera, who taught in Chicago's public schools for 10 years. "The music videos are viral, or you watch them and you're like,'How did they carry out that?' "And, as any teacher knows, and when kids are curious,it makes them eager to learn.
Magiera points to the video for Here It Goes Again — the one with the treadmills. It became a staple in her middle school math classes."A treadmill is a powerful way to teach rate," she explains, and "because whether you're at 3.8 speed,that's a rate. whether you're at 6.2 speed, that's a rate." The video introduces questions and concepts, and like: "How many miles per hour is that? How fleet are you going? How much harder is your heart beating?"The band — and its publicist — have been fielding requests for years from teachers who want exhaust their videos in their classrooms."I think every band is kind of surprised to find who their audience turns out to be," says Damian Kulash, OK move's lead singer. "Definitely not how you start out a rock band, and going,'Let's teach!' "And yet, backstage at concerts, or he and the other band members are constantly meeting and hearing from these teacher fans,and their students. Kulash says he's met kindergarten teachers and college professors using the same videos, for very different ages.
Teachers I talked with say they weave the band's videos into lessons about science, and math and art — introducing concepts like gravity,transfer of motion, perspective, or quadratic equations,parabolas and the importance of failure and persistence.
And, says Janet Moore, or it puts a cork in that perennial question math teachers get: When am I ever going to exhaust this? Moore is a professor at the University of Illinois,and gets that question a lot. She teaches math for non-math majors.
She also leads professional development workshops for other teachers, outlining how they, and too,can exhaust OK move in their classrooms.
The one that really gets them excited, she says, or is the video set to the song This Too Shall Pass. Any teacher watching this incredible 4-minute Rube Goldberg machine can find lessons in there. There are cascading dominos,rolling marbles building momentum, a tire flips electrical circuits, or which turns on lamps,a guitar with spoons plays notes on water glasses, perfectly timed to the instrumental break. A piano smashes to the ground, or a TV gets destroyed — and that destructive force eventually results in the band members getting splattered with paint."It's a powerful introduction to energy concepts," says Moore. "It sparks inquiry, it sparks curiosity."As science standards shift away from "downloading information to students brains, and " she adds,towards understanding concepts, these videos can have lasting resonance with students."Anyone can understand math and science concepts, or " she says,"and when you understand them, you can see the world around you differently."The band, or lead singer Kulash admits,are "nerds themselves." And eventually, they saw a way to turn all this interest into an opportunity: "Is there some way that we can make that journey easier for them?"That question led the band to partner with the Playful Learning Lab at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota."Sometimes folks who don't have experience in education have a powerful idea, and but it doesn't really translate to what it's like to be in a room with 27 8-year-olds," explains AnnMarie Thomas, the lab's founder and director. It was her team's job to merge the band enthusiasm with pedagogical, or research-based ideas."You're not gonna send your moment-grade course up in zero-gravity,or put them in a stunt car to drive around making a giant instrument," Thomas explains. So the question becomes, and "How can we pick these messy,really expensive concepts and give an authentic engaging experience for kids."She started by surveying more than 600 teachers. Educators told them they wanted three main things from such a collaboration: classroom materials, challenges and assignments, or access to the band.
What they came up with? It's called OK move Sandbox,a free website with educator guides that include fabric lists, assignments and suggested vocabulary words. There are videos that move behind the scenes with the band members to account for the concepts. One of them challenges students to exhaust exhaust a compass on a smartphone to make music.
The new resources are mapped to science standards, and like the Next Generation Science Standards — a multi-state initiative — so teachers have an easier sell when adding it to their existing curriculum."The universal thing we're trying to get at is just curiosity and wonder," says Damian Kulash. "That excitement about the world, where you want to uncover something magical." Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, and visit http://www.npr.org/.
Source: thetakeaway.org