Electric+Guitar

STEM has become a prominent aspect in the education curriculum. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. It's been a main focus to incorporate these subjects into the elementary classroom. We have done a few projects working with STEM thus far, but our most recent project was our biggest. We used STEM to create a robot... I bet you would never guess your student took part in building a robot in the first grade.

We used the Lego Mindstorms kit to construct a guitar and used the accompanying software to program the guitar to play music. I wanted the kids to see that math and science can also work simultaneously with the arts and creativity.

The students were divided into groups. We made a circle in the classroom and each group got to complete a "step" in the construction of the guitar. I then did the program on the Smart Board so that all of the students could watch along as I completed each step. The programming is too difficult for the students to do on their own, so I thought it was best for them to watch along as I did it. I programmed a program called "Guitar Chords" which programmed the guitar to find all of the frets. I then manually programmed the guitar to play a common tune, Jingle Bells. The kids then came up and had the opportunity to play the guitar, while others worked on coloring a guitar and practicing math facts.

Ideally, I wanted the students to und erstand what music was and be willing to help construct the guitar. I don't expect perfection. The students made lots of mistakes along the way, but they were all eager to fix them and make it better. I really enjoyed seeing the motivation these students had and the excitement on their faces when they got to help be a part of the construction.

I have attached a few pictures of the guitar and the related program.

For your view, I attached a lesson plan, a powerpoint and corresponding note guide, the powerpoint that guided your children through his or her step, and the guitar coloring sheet. As always, please email me if you have any questions, comments or concerns.

Lesson plan: Powerpoint: Note Guide: Activity Powerpoint: Guitar: