Monday, September 8, 2008

The Hurricane Song

I know, a song about hurricanes doesn't seem to have much to do with teaching math, but math and science are closely related, and there is a lot of math involved in meteorology, and certainly in manhandling data that gives those blasted hurricane models.

Hurricanes are in the news, especially if you live on the East Coast of the USA or nearby.
I recently wrote a post called Math Out Loud that talks about that very thing for young children.
This morning I was reminded again about how easily we remember song lyrics.

I heard Have a Cigar, by Pink Floyd, on the radio this morning and was surprised to see that I remembered not only every word to the song, but nearly every inflection nuance and most of the guitar solo. I haven't heard that song in fifteen years, and yet I retained it so well.

It started me to thinking about how much I loved educational songs as a child, and how much my own children enjoy them. Schoolhouse Rock taught me a lot, and my own kids got pretty hooked on a few Animaniacs songs. They now know all the presidents and can sing their way through listing every nation on Earth.

Here's a song about hurricanes that really tickled me, and not because Hurricane Ike missed is by a breeze or two. I just like it.
Check this out:
http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/educational_videos/educational_videos_hurricane_song.html

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