Math Jams
Sorry I'm so late to the party on this one, but I wanted to draw your attention to this NPR article from a couple of months back. It profiles the "Songwriter in Residence" program at the University of Tennessee's National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (or NIMBioS if you feel like spitting a bunch of letters out of your mouth). The experimental program hires songwriters for one month stints at the Institute, during which time they work with researchers to develop two songs on current scientific/mathematical research. Here's one of the resident's performing a song on sexual selection:
While combining the arts with the sciences is nothing new, it's cool to see a program embrace the intersection of these disciplines with such gusto. Of course, it can be difficult to squeeze educational content out of a song with a science focus, but if School House Rock has taught me anything, it is that education and fly jams need not be mutually exclusive. If you feel, however, that NIMBioS's song on sexual selection doesn't quite make the cut on the education front, here are some other math and science songs to ease you through your hump day.
Here is "The First and Second Law" by Flanders and Swann (this one is highly recommended), a song about thermodynamics:
For the mathematically inclined, there isn't much that can beat "Finite Simple Group (of Order Two)":
Though, if those jokes don't make much sense, one can always listen to muppets singing about math instead. Who knew there was math in tube socks?
(Hat tip to Meg for the NPR link!)
Psst ... did you know I have a brand new website full of interactive stories? You can check it out here!
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