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SALT LAKE CITY — One man says he's found a way to get more students excited about science - use hip-hop.
"Wouldn't it be beautiful if we could merge these two things?" said Dr. Chris Emdin from Columbia University, who is visiting Utah.
"The idea is to be an ambassador for science and for hip-hop culture," he said.
He smoothly slides into a rap about the theory of relativity. The crowd loves it and nods along. Another rap is about Newton's laws of motion (listen to Emdin's rap at the audio link on this page).
"The idea is not to make science not something in the ivory tower, but bring it to real people and have the audience feel like they understand science and are scientifically literate," he said.
Emdin says a decade of research shows hip-hop culture can bring successful instruction into the classroom by involving something students already are passionate about to make them excited to learn. He says hip-hop is a compelling model for teaching science because:
- The art knows how to bridge cultural divides
- It provides a comfortable beginning space to spark discussions
- It uses interactions and technology to connect with an audience
He says hip-hop and rap bridge the gap for students from home to school, and the culture is similar to science with metaphor analogy, observation, context and connections. He is in Utah speaking to teachers and students at several schools this month for the Ci-Water Symposium through the University of Utah and Utah Education Network.
