The Portland in music

Friends, I want to share something actually really exciting with you. Recently, I've been collaborating with an organization called Sound Explorations to fuse science and art in a really unique way. Sound Explorations teaches science concepts through music. The idea is to make science accessible to people who don't relate to or can't access the traditional ways that science is presented (mostly visual), including people who are neurodivergent, blind, or visually impaired. 

A screenshot from the video, showing some of the animals
that colonize the shipwreck over time. 

Sound Explorations' education director, Terry Wolkowicz, and their music director, David MacKenzie, got in contact with Calvin and me a little bit ago. They had already worked on a project with Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary and were looking to expand their content. Over the past few months, I've fielded emails from Terry about how organisms colonize shipwrecks. How do the animals move, what do they look like, who comes first, who eats whom? As I answered question after question, the information I provided was translated by Terry into an animated video and by David into a musical score for orchestra. The result is phenomenal. 

The best way I can describe the end product of our collaboration is to show you. Check out the video at the link below. If you're an educator interested in using multi-media and non-traditional approaches to teaching science in your classroom, I highly encourage you to reach out to Sound Explorations. You can also contact me at kmeyer@whoi.edu, and I'll be happy to help.

Check out the video here:

https://vimeo.com/842533494