Developed by Jean Napier-Faeih and Elizabeth Mulkey for the Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Grade Music Technology Classes.

In this lesson, students will learn about the major musical eras. The content areas that will be included in the lesson are music and language arts. Students will need to have access to a multimedia software such as PowerPoint or HyperStudio. The finished presentations can be burned to a CD and shown to parents.

The Kansas State Standards that are addressed in this WebQuest can be found here .

From a galaxy on the other side of the universe, a group of aliens are creating an intergalactic museum. They have sent a team of researchers to Earth to see if our culture and history holds anything of interest. They never heard music until they arrived here. They decided they really liked it and have asked some of the smartest people on Earth - stop laughing, they asked you - to create a sampler CD of the different musical eras which they can take back to their home planet and study. They said the museum space is limited and will only be able to house a display for one of the eras.

It is up to you and your teammates to create an entry for the collection. You will research the musical era assigned to you. You will use PowerPoint to create a slide show the aliens will take back with them. You will include information about composers, instruments, and song styles of that era. You will also include a little historical background for the era you selected. Be sure to use sound files and the lyrics or musical notation in your project. You will include information stating why your group feels the era and composers you choose to present are important. It is up to you to convince the aliens the era you are researching is the best.

1. Students will be divided into groups of three. Each student will then be assigned one of three roles. The assigned roles are Composer Researcher , Instrument Researcher , and the Song Style Researcher Role . For descriptions of your duties, please click on the assigned role. There is also a page that details what you are expected to do as a group. Please click to view the Group Work page.

2. Together as a group you will decide on 3 famous composers for your era.

3. You are expected to cite your web sources correctly. You will keep a list of all websites you take pieces of information from.

4. Your group will then meet to create a graphic organizer showing how you will organize and create your presentation.

5. Each researcher will make slides about his/her area of research. All the slides will then be put into one large presentation for the aliens to take back to their planet.

6. All three researchers will decide on a song or musical piece of the composer to put in the final slide of the PowerPoint presentation. This slide will include any lyrics and an explanation as to why it was chosen. Song excerpts should be included.

7. Your group will then present the PowerPoint project to the class.

Middle Ages/ Medieval

Romantic

20th Century

Prehistoric

Click here for your evaluation rubric! You should print out a copy of this rubric for each member of your group.

Congratulations! You have completed your task and sent the aliens off with their CD sampler. Individually reflect on the following questions:

1. How did music evolve?

2. Do historical events influence composers and the music they write?

3. In light of the tragic events that occurred in America on 9/11/01 how do you think music will evolve in America? Do you think those events will have an effect on American music?

4. Has this WebQuest influenced your feelings about the different musical eras?

5. If you had to do this WebQuest again, what would you do differently?