Young Conductor!

Orchestrating an Orchestra!

A WebQuest for 4th-6th Grade Fine Arts

Introduction:

Have you ever wanted to play an instrument? Would you like to know what an orchestra consists of? Do you have any idea how expensive instruments can be? If you were appointed by the mayor of your city to conduct and organize the city orchestra, where would you begin?

The Tasks:

These tasks will help you compose a budget for an orchestra for your city or town. After you have completed the budgeting, you will submit the orchestra financial proposal to your teacher, the Mayor, and your classmates, the Board of Trustees. You will also:

identify and label different orchestra instruments,

name and list instruments in their prospective family,

view other city orchestra web pages,

collect instrument prices from online catalogs, and

name and design a logo for the orchestra of your city or town.

The Process:

In order to complete the WebQuest with presentable responses and productions, it is important that you follow the steps listed below. Each resource listed has specific instructions to assist you in your musical experience.

1. There are many instruments in the orchestra. You will play Guess the Instrument to see if you can identify the instruments you see and hear. You will record the number of times you successfully identified the instruments after eight games.
2. The orchestra is comprised of four main instrument families. You will find the brass, wind, percussion, and string families. Select three instruments from each family. Make a chart placing the correct instruments in their proper family.
3. Orchestras are in a number of cities. You will view three different famous orchestras from around the world. You will write down the orchestras' web address. You must also write one paragraph about each orchestra.
4. Orchestra instruments can really be costly. You will create a spreadsheet of instruments prices for the wind and brass sections of the orchestra. This spreadsheet must consist of at least ten instruments. You must submit your spreadsheet as a budget proposal to your teacher, the Mayor and your classmates, the Board of Trustees.
5. Now that you have researched and organized your own orchestra, what will you call it? How will your orchestra be recognized from others? You must create a name and logo for your newly formed orchestra. You will download Office Art AutoShapes to help you design your logo. The name and logo must also be presented to the Mayor and Board of Trustees for approval.

The Evaluation:

	Beginning 1	Developing 2	Accomplished 3	Exemplary 4
Identify and label different orchestra instruments	Does not recognize instruments by sight and sound.	Only recognizes instruments by sight or sound.	Recognizes most instruments by sight and sound.	Recognized instruments by sight and sound and recorded game winning totals.
Name and list instrument families	Unable to name or list instrument families.	Can only name instrument families.	Can name and list some instruments in the correct family.	Named and listed instruments in the correct family and produced a chart of them.
Research of different famous orchestras	Did not give web addresses for famous orchestras.	Only produced web addresses for famous orchestras.	Produced only two web addresses and a written paragraph for each one.	Produced three web addresses and a written paragraph for each one.
Find orchestra instrument prices for budget proposal	Did not produce any orchestra instrument prices.	Produced a list of orchestra instrument prices on paper.	Produced an incomplete spreadsheet for orchestra instrument proposal.	Submitted and completed spreadsheet for orchestra instrument budget proposal.
Create a name and design a logo for your orchestra	Did not submit a name or logo for the orchestra.	Submitted a name for the orchestra.	Submitted a logo for the orchestra.	Submitted a name and logo for the orchestra.

Conclusion:

Great job young musicians! By now, you should have some idea as to what it takes to pull an orchestra together. The next time you see an instrumentalist or conductor, you will have great respect for that person because you know what they must go through to produce such wonderful harmonies and melodies!

Credits & References:

I would like to thank God for the opportunity to share the wonderful world of music with students throughout the Memphis City Schools system and the Worldwide Web. It is with sincere gratitude that I acknowledge Dr. Bruce Lewis for his expertise and ability to guide students through the computer applications course at Freed-Hardeman University. I would also like to express my appreciation for the famous orchestra pages available. The logo design program was a tremendous help as well. This WebQuest is dedicated to the memory of my music teacher, the late Dr. Lulah McEwen Hedgeman, a noted musical magician with young people. May the extensions of your musicianship soar across the world through the web.

Teacher Advice:

This lesson is designed to cover fourth through sixth grade music concepts in the fine arts. This lesson can easily be extended to additional grades as an introduction to musical instruments.

Students will need to know how to use the Internet and maneuver the mouse.

This lesson is organized for individuals to complete at their own pace. It will be used for each music class in grades four through six. Students should complete the lesson over a six weeks period. This lesson is interdisciplinary. It integrates with math, language arts, social studies, art, and technology.

Teachers should have a background in internet skills for this lesson. The novice teacher will be able to execute this lesson with the proper internet skills as well.

This lesson may be carried out by assigning student to work in groups. Groups should consist of one member for each task. Each group member will be responsible for a task. The group should present the finished tasks to be evaluated as a unit.

This lesson may be implemented with one teacher. The teacher is at liberty to include the technology coordinator of the school if he/she feels it will assist the students' search.

Created for EDU 506 @ FHU School of Education by Richard E. Horner, Jr. on July 31, 2001.