Last updated: November 25, 2024
Lesson Plan
Echoes of the Past
Cover of "Echoes of the Past" Lesson Plan
Young Sound Seekers / Atlantic Center for the Arts
- Grade Level:
- Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade
- Subject:
- Literacy and Language Arts,Social Studies
- Lesson Duration:
- 60 Minutes
- Common Core Standards:
- 5.SL.1, 5.SL.2, 5.SL.3, 5.SL.4, 6.SL.1, 6.SL.2, 6.SL.3, 6.SL.4, 7.SL.1, 7.SL.2, 7.SL.3, 7.SL.4, 8.SL.1, 8.SL.2, 8.SL.3, 8.SL.4, 9-10.SL.1, 9-10.SL.2, 9-10.SL.3, 9-10.SL.4
- State Standards:
- SC.4.N.1.1
SC.5.P.10.1
SP.PK12.VI.1.2
SP.PK12.VI.4.2
SP.PK12.VI.6.1
SP.PK12.US.22.1
SC.6.N.2.3
SP.PK12.US.13.3
SP.PK12.VI.5.6 - Thinking Skills:
- Remembering: Recalling or recognizing information ideas, and principles. Understanding: Understand the main idea of material heard, viewed, or read. Interpret or summarize the ideas in own words. Evaluating: Make informed judgements about the value of ideas or materials. Use standards and criteria to support opinions and views.
Essential Question
How have soundscapes changed over time?
Objective
Participants will identify cultural and natural sounds of their location. They will imagine
historic sounds, differentiating between sounds that belong with the area (intrinsic) and
sounds that are not part of the location (extrinsic). Participants will be introduced to a brief cultural history of the site and learn how sounds influence culture.
Preparation
Find a comfortable place to gather and sit, either in seating protected from the weather or on the ground.
You may extend this activity by using a portable audio player such as a Bluetooth speaker paired with Smartphone for playback of the audio samples offered: Rain Stick and Throat Singing.
Materials
Procedure
Step A)
Offer a brief history of the cultural significance of your chosen location. A local park ranger or interpretation specialist may volunteer to give a 5–10-minute introduction, or the lead facilitator can research this information prior to the activity. When explaining the cultural history, use as many descriptors as possible, stating the cardinal directions, features of the land, colors, textures, and other identifiers. Include a brief Q&A if time allows.
Beginning with the present year, use each time period to discuss examples of technological development. This activity asks participants to imagine how sounds change through time. Draw the group’s attention to all the sounds (animals, wind, water, people, technology, etc.).
Ask:
• What sounds do you hear right now?
• Are these sounds unique to this time-period? (Example: cellphones, digital devices, etc.). This is the soundscape of our time: the digital revolution.
• In what decade were your parents born? Which sounds would they have heard on this site? Are these different from today?
• In what decade were your grandparents born? Which sounds would they have heard on this site? Which would have been different from the sounds your parents heard? (In the early 1900’s, America began to hear motorboats, cars, airplanes, and telephones.)
• In what time-period did European settlers set up businesses (or tourism) in this location?
• The soundscape changed dramatically after the Industrial Revolution. Were there trains moving through this land? Horses? What did people use for cooking fuel?
• What about the people native to this land? What did they hear? (Example: fire, stone, brick ovens, tribes telling stories or preparing for ceremonies, etc.)
• Can you imagine hearing these sounds now?
Step B)
Read Quote by Dr. Bernie Krause (soundscape expert and field recordist):
Play audio samples included in Materials, if there is time.Speaking about our ancient ancestors, “our imagination and our innate need to hear relationships between sounds would have been first stimulated by the voices of the tropical and temperate forest, deserts, high plains, tundra, and coastal regions, where we camped, hunted, and listened. This would have served as a template from which to arrange our own sounds – made with our voices and early instruments. While we were carefully listening, we would have transformed what we heard into expressions that reflected immediate links to the world around us.” For example, “a tribe once completely isolated in the tropical Brazilian mountains and rainforests, the Yanomami use rain sticks to incorporate their acoustic environment into their ceremonies and music…Inuit groups who live in the Northwest Territories of Canada emulate in their music the constant wind that roars across the open plains and tundra, the strongest natural acoustic presence of their environments. By subtle manipulation of sound’s resonance as it comes from their throats, the singers can generate multiple harmonics that leave the impression of many voices simultaneously coming from one source.”
Step C)
The facilitator gives the definitions of intrinsic and extrinsic sounds before leading into a discussion about how sounds influence culture and wellbeing.
Say:
Intrinsic sounds are cultural, historic, and natural sounds that belong within the park experience. Extrinsic sounds are sounds that do not form an essential part of the park experience. The facilitator will give an example of one intrinsic sound and one extrinsic sound that they notice present in the moment.
Ask:
• What sounds do you enjoy in this environment? Are the sounds intrinsic or extrinsic?
• Are any of these sounds common in your everyday experience?
• Do any of those sounds inspire you to be creative? To sing or dance?
• Which sounds are important for visitors to enjoy their experience of the park?
• Which sounds distract from your enjoyment of the park?
• What would you like to change about the soundscape in this location?
Vocabulary
Habitat - The natural home or environment of an animal, plant, or other organism. A person's usual or preferred surroundings.
Coastal - Things that are in the sea or on the land near the edge of the sea.
Noise pollution - Unwanted or disturbing sound in the environment that affects the health and well-being of humans and other living organisms.
Culture - The customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group.
Native peoples - The term Native is often used to describe indigenous peoples from the United States (Native Americans, Native Hawaiians, Alaska Natives), but it can also serve as a specific descriptor (Native people, Native lands, Native traditions, etc.) or indigenous people - people with a shared national identity, such as “Navajo” or “Sami.”
Biodiversity - All the different kinds of life you'll find in one area—the variety of animals, plants, fungi, and even microorganisms like bacteria that make up our natural world. Each of these species and organisms work together in ecosystems, like an intricate web, to maintain balance and support life.
Environmental health - Public health that focuses on the relationships between people and their environment; promotes human health and well-being; and fosters healthy and safe communities.
Intrinsic Sounds - Cultural, historic and natural sounds that belong within the experience of a location.
Extrinsic Sounds - Sounds not forming an essential part of the experience of a location.
Additional Resources
Bernie Krause, The Great Animal Orchestra: Finding the Origins of Music in the World’s Wild Places, Paperback (New York, New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2012)
Bernie Krause, Wild Soundscapes: Discovering the Voice of the Natural World, Revised (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2016)
U.S. National Park Service and Colorado State University. 2019. “Junior Ranger Sounds Explorer.” U.S. National Park Service. https://www.nps.gov/subjects/sound/upload/Junior-Sound-Ranger_09232019_678-429_FINAL.pdf.
Deanna Ochs et al., eds., “The Power of Sound: the Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division Interpretive Handbook” (National Park Service Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division, 2018), https://www.nps.gov/- subjects/sound/upload/PowerSound_May2018updated-508.pdf
Related Lessons or Education Materials
Young Sound Seekers curricula are developed by:
Dr. Nathan Wolek at Stetson University, Eve Payor at Atlantic Center for the Arts, and Edith Stein at the Florida School for Deaf and Blind, with funding from the National Park Service Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division.
Additional lesson plans in the series:
Listen, Pair, Share
Good Vibes