This new annotated guide (part of a series devoted to resources for enjoying or teaching astronomy) features over 250 pieces of music inspired by serious astronomy, including both classical and popular music examples. YouTube links are given for the vast majority, so you (or your students) can listen to them.

Among the pieces included is:
1) a Hubble Space Telescope cantata,
2) eight rock songs about black holes with reasonable science,
3) a supernova piano sonata,
4) a musical exploration of the Messier catalog of nebulae, clusters, and galaxies,
5) a moving song about Stephen Hawking,
6) Moon songs by the Grateful Dead, George Harrison, and the Police,
7) piano pieces “for children with small hands” named after the constellations,
8) operas about Galileo, Kepler, and Einstein,
and many more.

This approximately one-month long unit will encompass a variety of subjects mainly focusing on Science, ELA, Math, Social Studies, and Art. Culminating in a field trip to a nature center. This unit is easily adaptable to an English Language Learner.

This open resource is designed as an example of interdisciplinary activities on History, Geography and Arts to be used in ELT classes .

This open resource is designed as an example of interdisciplinary activities on History, Geography and Arts to be used in ELT classes .

In this activity, students use a piano keyboard to model spectral lines as musical chords. It is designed to aid student understanding of spectral analysis, what the patterns mean, how elements are involved, and how this relates to stars. Traditionally, spectral images are two dimensional, and related to text. This auditory activity allows students to "hear" differences in patterns of various elements (e.g., nickel or helium). This activity is part of the "What is Your Cosmic Connection to the Elements" information and activity booklet. The booklet includes photos, teachers notes and instructions, and a link to a color image pdf of visible light spectra that can be printed and used to do the activity. This activity requires a piano keyboard, color printout or construction paper and/or toothpicks (to mark spectral lines of elements).

The curriculum shared here utilizes Terra Nostra, a multimedia symphony about climate change. Variations of the curriculum were developed by Kim Davenport for use in several 100-, 200- and 300-level non-major music courses at the University of Washington, Tacoma. More than 50% of UWT undergraduate students are the first in their family to attend college, and nearly 60% are students of color.Depending on the exact level and subject-matter of each course, Terra Nostra was utilized in support of a variety of learning objectives:Building students’ listening skills, through the combination of music and video, and through the analysis of music without wordsDrawing interdisciplinary connections between music and other disciplinesProviding an example of music created to raise awareness about a timely social issueAlthough the assignments shared here were designed for music courses, they could easily be adapted for inclusion in courses in other disciplines, and this is indeed one of the motivations for sharing this curriculum through a Creative Commons license.