Quotes about Astrocappella from Teachers & Students
These quotes were unsolicited comments sent to us by teachers and students after hearing and using the first AstroCappella disk. That disk was made through an IDEAS grant from NASA and was given away free to educators.
"I just wanted to let you know how much I have enjoyed your Astro Cappella CD. I have had it playing in my office to learn the songs for a class and the reaction I get from people coming in is priceless. I will notice them humming or keeping beat with the music then the words sink in and they can not belive it is an educational song that is also fun to listen to. The touch of having a Web page with activities that go with the song is outstanding. If you do any more Educational CDs I would like to be first in line." - Ann McCartney, Georgia State U., GA
"If science at school had been this interesting, I wouldn't have always slept through it." - Anonymous South Carolina 4-H Member, SC
"I am a junior high science teacher working with students on a science olympiad team. One of our events is astronomy and we stumbled across a snippet of the Doppler song in our search for information. We were so excited about the song that we had to know the words. We called in our surfing the net expert and quickly discovered more fun songs!!!!!!! WE MUST HAVE THAT FREE CD!!! We have spent over an hour listening and singing along." - Krisi Williams, Paulding Middle School, Paulding, OH
"Your music is fantastic!!! Thank you very, very much!" - Cindy Langelier, Novelty, OH
"My students could always remember the lyrics to commercials or TV sitcoms -- Gilligan's Island, Brady Bunch, Burger King -- but never the parts of a cell. Using music to teach and to learn is effective but teachers just don't have the time to create lyrics to songs (some of us just don't have the talent). Your CD is one of the most innovative uses of music for science education. The information in the songs elevates the level of understanding for some very complicated concepts in astronomy for middle school students. The activities are also outstanding that accompany the songs. Thank you for giving me an effective tool to use in the classroom." - Cheryl Wood, Orlando science teacher, FL
"I think that this creative teaching method is refreshing and appealing." - Julie Slettom, 4-H Officer, Little Falls, MN
"I was in Las Vegas and heard you perform. I received a copy of your CD and book. Thank you very much. You are excellent educational entertainment ... I like most of the songs and will use them with my high school astronomy classes next year ... thanks for your wonderful songs and copies for so many of our group ... I have had feedback in the form of raves. When one of my colleagues has come to my home I play it and given him/her a disk. I always get, "Boy is that great ... Wow, this will be perfect with my high school astronomy ... My students will love this..." I have used it with my own high school astronomies and they think [the songs] are really "cool." They like the beat and the tune, irrespective of the words (or story, as in the Doppler shift song)." - Jeanne Bishop, Westlake High School, Westlake, OH
"I received the CD you sent. Thanks. The songs are great fun, well performed, and very creative." - Don Snyder, Washington University, St. Louis, MO
"Hi, I received your CD and had so much fun listening to it. What a great project! I would like to get copies for several teachers in our museum so they can use these in camps and science programs. Is it possible for you to mail me three more CDs and then I can distribute these to the teachers? I also conduct teacher workshops in our area and I am certainly going to share this with workshops. Let me know what you can do. I appreciate anything you can give me and promise to spread the word about your project. (hey does it help that I work in music city Nashville and my husband is a professional songwriter? ;) Thanks again for making me smile after hearing your lyrics." - Sharon Mendonsa, Cumberland Science Museum, Nashville, TN
"Congratulations for being creative as well as talented!" - Patricia Waugh, 4-H Youth Agent, Lapeer, MI
"I was given a StarChild CD-ROM at the NSTA conference in Las Vegas in April. I found info about your project on it. I then looked you up on the web and found two whole songs and the activities to go with them. A large portion of my yearly curriculum deals with astronomy Your songs are so catchy and so full of information. I've been teaching "The Doppler Shift" to all my classes. They think its the greatest way to learn. Our fifth grade puts on an event called "Picnic Under the Stars." This is a program that allows the students to showcase what they have been learning about astronomy and the space program. I've worked very hard to integrate music, drama, art, math, and English into this science night. The music was always the biggest challenge. The best song we came up with, until I found your music, was a song from Monty Python's movie "The Meaning of Life." I'm really excited to be able to use your music this year. What a wonderful addition." - Donna Olsen, Gulliver Academy, Coral Gables, FL
"I am a teacher in the Fairfax County Public School system. I would like a copy of your AstroCappella CD. My students and I heard your ensemble on NASA's Passport to Knowledge "Live from the Sun" video. We were mesmerized, and have been humming the tunes we heard ever since." - Tamara Prybyla, Fairfax, VA
"From the NASA desk at the STANYS (Science Teachers Assoc of NYS) last November, I picked up the AstroCappella CD and have greatly enjoyed it. I thought I was tired of listening to it so gave it to another teacher only to discover that I'm not tired of it at all but still humming the tunes and marveling at the unique phrases, both musically and verbally. Please send me another disk and activity book - I promise not to give them to anyone!" - Nancy E. Spaulding, Elmira, NY
"As you know, music is essential to an elementary classroom and I believe science is too - what a great combination!" - Debbie Reinemann, School of Education, Boston University, MA
"I had been wondering how I could get a hand on that AstroCappella CD which I loved as a postgrad scholar at NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center for sixteen months (January 1997-April 1998). I heard some of the songs of AstroCappella during the "Celebrate Goddard Day 1997" and I really loved the songs! I want a copy of it since I will be able to use it for my work with children at the Children's Museum in the Philippines. I am the in-house scientist of "Museo Pambata" (Children's Museum) and I head the Tuklas (Discover) Science Club with fifty members aged 6 to 16 years old. I would definitely use the songs to teach the kids about astronomy." - Agnes M. Pasco, Balibago, Angeles City 2009, Philippines And the sequel to this: "You would have loved the reaction of the kids at Museo Pambata last March 1999, when I had the CD played to the Tuklas Science Club. It was a big hit! The kids sang along most of the time! ... Thanks so much for the materials! We are also planning to come up with our own version of "Tuklasongs" to be sung by our club kids. Thanks for your inspiration!" - Agnes M. Pasco, Balibago, Angeles City 2009, Philippines
"The concept is great and you've done a marvelous job in the production and presentation. Thanks!" - Paul Allan, Colony High School, Palmer, AK
"I am an instructor for the School of Education at Webster University in St. Louis and I teach teachers how to use music and art for studying basic curricula. I visited a friend over the weekend who had your CD and I was very impressed and excited about the possibility of owning one for the purpose of sharing it with many teachers and using it to illustrate some of the techniques I use. I think it's terrific that you have been awarded a grant to do your very important work. Your songs maintain the integrity of poetry and music AND they teach. Congratulations!" - Lori Diefenbacher, Webster University, St Louis, MO
"I love your songs!" - Dave Hauxhurst, Madera, CA
"Please share with the group that your CD got rave reviews at our recent Page-Frederick 4-H Winter Camp, "Space, the Final Frontier." We chose the "HST Bop" to have the group learn and sing together, and it just happened that we sang it as a presenter was preparing his homemade telescope to share with us. I had several adults, including the presenter, make positive comments and want to know more about the song and the group. Many thanks for adding a fun, learning experience to our 4-H camping weekend." - Debra A. Jones, 4-H Extension Agent, Virginia Tech, VA
"Greetings AstroCappella! I am writing to tell you I have been using the AstroCappella Chromatics in my 9th grade science classroom and my kids love it. I would like to order a set for myself (the one I have I am borrowing from another teacher here) Thanks a lot!!" - Stacy Kuehnis, Los Gatos High School, Los Gatos, CA
"I really feel kids can learn through music!!!! Great Job." - Todd Huff, Crystal Lake, IL 60014
"I have not stopped playing the CD since it arrived this afternoon. I have just started a Radio Astronomy course with our postgrad students and will play them "Cosmic Radio Show" in their lecture tomorrow. It neatly summarises what I tried to convey in today's lecture! I have not yet looked at the accompanying workbook in detail, but it looks very interesting on brief perusal. Great Stuff, keep the songs rolling ..." - Dr Justin L. Jonas, Radio Astronomy Group, Dept. Physics & Electronics, Rhodes University, Grahamstown 6140, South Africa
"I feel that it is my mission to ensure that the sparkle isn't snuffed out of astronomy through teaching it in school and your idea is absolutely PERFECT! I can hardly wait to promote it in Kingston's schools!" - Laura Gagne, Joyceville, Ontario, Canada
"I heard your AstroCappella CD when another teacher (Science) shared with me how he is using it (and related materials) in his classroom. Please send one to me so I can stop borrowing his." - Jerry M. Bennett, San Gorgonio High School, San Bernardino, CA
"I would like a copy of your CD!! It sounds great! I can't wait to use it on my students!!" - Alicia Bongiorno, Meridian, ID
"I think it was wonderful how you taught us as you sang." "Great voices! Good job." "It is really great to see a group of diverse professionals making this kind of music together. You harmonize so WELL!" "Thanks! You are brilliant!" "You seem to have good chemistry between each other on stage! That's important." "I thoroughly enjoyed your performance. It was a creative blend of science and music. Each of you is very talented to combine the two. Thank you for coming and for your hard work. Hope to see you again." - More quotes from the (anonymous) survey The Chromatics conducted after their South Carolina workshops
"Yesterday I get a CD from my friend. I took it in my computer. He said that it a very good music from USA, from a Research Center at NASA. I think you know, that it was the AstroCappella CD. I'm a Hungarian boy, 17, and I would like to be astronomy-informatics teacher. I learn English only for 3 years but I was able to understand yours tracks. I think it's a very good idea. But I think, that not too many people know about it in Hungary. I'm working for an newspaper, it's appear on the Internet, http://cyberpress.sopron.hu, and I write about the astronomy. If you write about you something, we appear it in our newspaper. One thing is sure. We will hear your CD in the school, in the first week. So it's a very good music, a very good idea, very good understanding music, and I'm sorry that I haven't heard it before." - Laszlo Bacsardi, Sopron, Hungary
"The IDEAS program is oriented towards innovative approaches to education and therefore result in a wide range of programs including AstroCappella (the creation of a cappella astronomy songs written and performed by a group from NASA/GSFC, Smale, Boyd, and Granger), video kiosks in the Air and Space Museum (SAO, Dow), teaching astronomy in the parks (U of Wisconsin, Bjorkman, Wilcots), as well as the more bread and butter programs of teacher training and curriculum development ...." - Carol Christian, STSci; Session 27 - IDEA Grants 192nd Meeting of the American Astronomical Society 7-12 June 1998 -- San Diego, CA
"What wonderful material! I cannot wait to get started. Thank you!" - B. Ting, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
"Thank you very much for the Astrocapella CD and workbook which you sent me. Using this CD definitely made teaching my first astronomy course more fun, for me and for the students. I was teaching an introductory level descriptive course for non-science majors. I didn't use any of the activities in the workbook, I would just play a song at some time during the lesson for a change of pace. Usually I played the song at least twice, and I gave each student a copy of the lyrics, and the glossary for the song. By the second time some of them were humming along with the music, or singing softly, and several of them would start to move in time to the music. But most importantly, they learned! The tunes helped them remember things. Students would comment that the words had stuck in their brains. After a few weeks I started to get requests for playing certain songs again. I think the favorites were "Cosmic Radio Show" and "High Energy Groove", and they really liked the Doppler shift song as well. I think you all did a great job, thanks very much!" -Karen Müller, Houston Baptist University, Houston, TX
"I couldn't be more impressed. The quality of the vocals are outstanding, and the lesson plans are concise and should prove interesting to the children. The promptness of the shipping was also appreciated. I have been playing the CD around the house for 2 days straight, my 8 year old twins adore the "HST" song. Our local girl scout council is having a "Twilight Camp" this summer, and I am excited to work on some of these projects. I hope you don't mind, but I have given the link to two of my teacher-friends. One is a space and planetary sciences teacher from Arizona. The other is an astronomy professor here in Missouri. Thanks so much." -Karma Gardner, Jefferson City, MO
Forwarded to us: "I watched a fascinating program this afternoon on the Instruction Channel about the Soho project and to my surprise they had a singing group with songs, of all things, about the doppler shift, sun spots, etc. Incredible stuff!! Does anyone on your end have any idea of how I can get video copies of these very informational performances?" -Rick Clement, MD
On the Passport to Knowledge listserv: "Yes! Great CD! Last year at NASA I saw this group perform at one of the sessions at NSTA. They were such a cool group. I picked up 2 copies of their CD and played and played and played it. In fact, I keep one of the copies in my car cd player --great high energy songs for the drive home! Science and music- a great way for students to learn. My kids love the songs and know them by heart !!" -Marilyn Wall, VA