Pupils go bananas to make music with science

Pupils at Morven Park Primary School have made sweet music during an interactive workshop which saw them use anything from bananas to plasticine and high-fives to make circuits that enabled them to create instruments and play music via their computers.
Morven Park pupils used a variety of items to make music as part of the creative workshop. Photo EON/Page OneMorven Park pupils used a variety of items to make music as part of the creative workshop. Photo EON/Page One
Morven Park pupils used a variety of items to make music as part of the creative workshop. Photo EON/Page One

E.ON’s ‘Creative Conductors’ workshop is designed to help pupils’ understanding of electricity, conduction and circuits, and at Morven Park it concluded with year 5 pupils performing their musical creations for their classmates.

During the workshop, which was also attended by MP Gloria De Piero, pupils rolled up their sleeves and experimented with a range of foods, plants and everyday objects which they clipped to circuit boards in order to demonstrate how the items could help conduct electricity.

This workshop forms part of E.ON’s commitment to helping educate communities across the country about saving energy and smarter energy solutions.

Billie-Jean Poole, who works in community relations at E.ON, said: “The idea behind Creative Conductors is to inspire pupils to discover for themselves the amazing conducting properties of everyday objects.

“Pupils also learn how to complete a circuit and then use that power to create different sounds and ultimately make music.

“These hands-on activities have been specifically designed to fit within the physics, design and computing curricula, and to promote STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) topics to young people in a fun and inspiring way.”

Mark Watson, head teacher at Morven Park, said: “The pupils have thoroughly enjoyed the workshop and it’s encouraged them to get hands-on and to think about the topic of energy in a fun and engaging way.

“The class really enjoyed trying something new, and fully embraced the challenges they were set during the workshop.

“It was a lively session, and judging by the music produced, the year five children quickly came to understand that just about any material that can conduct electricity, can work in this set-up.”

Gloria De Piero added: “It was great to see both the boys and the girls showing such a keen interest in science and being so enthusiastic about the task they were completing: you could see how much they were enjoying learning.

“We’re going to need more and more scientists and engineers in this country in the future, so workshops like this are really important for nurturing a passion in these subjects and I hope it has inspired some of the pupils at Morven Park to take up careers in science.”