Tomorrow is the Autumnal Equinox, marking the first push down the slippery slope into a cold, dark winter. As the days get noticeably shorter in Edmonton, I wanted to take a minute to look back on a busy but fun Boundary Vision summer. While I haven’t been that active here, the spirit of blog has been a part of several summer projects. A big highlight for me has been that chance to go a lot further in exploring connections between science and popular music.
Here at Boundary Vision, a virtuoso of funk bassist, Victor Wooten, got me thinking about some new metaphors for science education.
Over at the Finch & Pea, my DJ duties gave me some great opportunities. I got to meet and chat with Halifax-based folk singer-songwriter Nick Everett about how becoming a musician might actually be a lot like learning science in Nick Everett and the Zone of Proximal Development.
At a great new summer festival in Edmonton, Interstellar Rodeo, I saw the most energetic afternoon set I’ve ever seen from Australian band Wagons and wondered how science teachers might take a lesson from their hard-working lead singer: Could Aussie band Wagons help new science teachers?
Certainly, though, the highlight was a lovely and deep conversation I had with Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland of the duo Whitehorse. What started out as a quick chat about one of their tracks for a Song of Week, turned into something much richer when I found out how passionate they are about science. The result of that conversation was an article published on the Scientific American Guest Blog this week: There’s another passion behind the music of Whitehorse: The sound of scientific thinking.
