David Merrell, a high school student from Suffolk, Virginia, has won top honors in regional and state science fairs for his experiment involving mice, a maze, and hard-rock and roll music.
After establishing a baseline of about 10 minutes for the mice to navigate the maze, David started playing music 10 hours a day, then put the mice through the maze three times a week for three weeks.
His findings: the control-group mice, which did not listen to any music, were able to cut five minutes off their time; the mice that listened to classical music cut 8.5 minutes off their time; and the mice that listened to hard-rock and roll music took 20 minutes longer to navigate the maze.
David said, I had to cut my project short because all the hard-rock mice killed each other. None of the classical mice did that at all."œ.
Sources: Washington Times, July 2, 1997.
Reported in Nexus Magazine December, 1997.
The Influence of Music and Music Videos.
Singing and music have always played an important role in learning and the communication of culture. Children learn from the role models what they see and hear. For the past 35 years, some children's television has very effectively used the combination of words, music and fast-paced animation to achieve learning.
Most parents are concerned about what their young children see and hear, but as children grow older, parents pay less attention to the music and videos that hold their children's interest.
The sharing of musical tastes between generations in a family can be a pleasurable experience. Music also is often a major part of a teenager's separate world. It is quite common for teenagers to get pleasure from keeping adults out and causing adults some distress.
A concern to many interested in the development and growth of teenagers is the negative and destructive themes of some rock and other kinds of music, including best-selling albums promoted by major recording companies.