who lives in Ghana. 2

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Lucy Hamilton
6 years ago
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1 Kwame is a boy 1

2 who lives in Ghana. 2

3 Kwame is practicing his drumming for this year s Odwira festival. With each strike on his drum, he can feel the vibrations through his body they feel like the beating of his heart. Kwame is particularly sensitive to hearing, touch, and smell these senses are important to him because he was born blind. 3

4 At the festival, Kwame and his cousin Kofi will be performing a drumming rhythm that Kwame has composed. Kwame is nervous about the performance because he and Kofi live far apart in different villages and they won t be able to practice drumming together before the festival. 4

To take his mind off his nerves, Kwame s father has a surprise for him he is taking Kwame to meet Professor Payne, a research biologist with whom Kwame s father works.

5 To take his mind off his nerves, Kwame s father has a surprise for him he is taking Kwame to meet Professor Payne, a research biologist with whom Kwame s father works. Professor Payne works on the Elephant Listening Project, which studies the population of elephants that live in the nearby rainforest. Kwame s father, an acoustical engineer, has been helping Professor Payne count the elephants in the forest using their sounds, since they can be difficult to see through the trees. Kwame is very excited because he has been hoping to hear some of the recordings of elephant noises they have captured perhaps they will inspire a new drumming rhythm! 5

6 Kwame and his father walk through the bustling streets to get to Professor Payne s office. When they arrive, she plays one of her elephant recordings for Kwame. 6

7 Kwame asks, are those elephants? They sound like trumpets blasting through the forest. Professor Payne hands Kwame a statue of an elephant. He feels the trunk with his hands and says, elephants have built-in trumpets, don t they? Kwame s father explains that elephants don t always sound like horns. In fact, elephants can make some sounds that humans can t hear. 7

8 This introduction leads to a conversation about the nature of sound. Sound is actually vibrations; some vibrations are too slow or too fast for humans to hear. This has to do with the pitch of the sound. Slow vibrations produce low-pitched sounds and fast vibrations produce high-pitched sounds. Kwame s father explains that different animals are able to hear different ranges of pitches. 8

Professor Payne and Kwame s father then bring Kwame to one of the research sites in the rainforest. Thump! Kwame hears the recording equipment being lowered to the ground.

9 Professor Payne and Kwame s father then bring Kwame to one of the research sites in the rainforest. Thump! Kwame hears the recording equipment being lowered to the ground. Professor Payne explains that Kwame s father, who is an acoustical engineer, helped to design the recording units. They record the sounds of the forest, including the sounds of the elephants. I can t wait to look at these sound data, says Professor Payne. 9

10 Look at the sound? How do you look at sound? Kwame asks. Professor Payne explains that the recording units his father designs take measurements of how loud, soft, high, or low the sounds are and turn those measurements into pictures called spectrograms. She then takes a stick and draws an example of a spectrogram in the dirt for Kwame to feel with his hand. As he feels the dirt and thinks about the sounds this line might represent, Kwame has an idea! 10

Kwame can make his own kind of spectrogram to communicate his drumming rhythm to Kofi! Kwame s father suggests he use the Engineering Design Process to help him.

11 Kwame can make his own kind of spectrogram to communicate his drumming rhythm to Kofi! Kwame s father suggests he use the Engineering Design Process to help him. Already an expert on the EDP, Kwame knows that he needs to Ask questions, Imagine solutions, Plan and Create his design, and then Improve it. He can t wait to get started. 11

12 The next day, while Kwame is helping his sister, Afua, make fufu, a pounded mixture of mashed plantains and yams, they fall into a rhythm with their pounding post: Thump. Slide. Thump. Slide. 12

13 Kwame asks Afua, If you had to represent that rhythm, what would it look like? Afua explains that if she draws a picture of those sounds, Kwame wouldn t be able to see it. But Kwame has another idea they can make shapes to represent the sounds that he could feel. They get to work trying out different ideas. 13

14 Afua thinks that the thump would be big and thick kind of like a yam! The skinny plantains are long and thin. Maybe they could represent the slide. Kwame decides to carve his sound representation in the bowl of fufu. He uses the spoon to carve a deep pointed wave for the thump and a shallow swoop for the slide. 14

Then, they test their designs. Kwame runs his hands over the row of yams and plantains and correctly guesses, thump, slide, slide, thump, thump, slide, slide, thump!

15 Then, they test their designs. Kwame runs his hands over the row of yams and plantains and correctly guesses, thump, slide, slide, thump, thump, slide, slide, thump! Afua tries to interpret Kwame s carvings in the fufu, but accidentally erases the pattern as she runs her hand over it. Hmm, says Kwame. That s not good. I bet I couldn t send Kofi fufu in the mail, either. 15

16 For the rest of the afternoon, Kwame imagines all sorts of ways to represent his drumming rhythm. He imagines carving in mud, using wooden beads, and then a combination of string, paper, wooden blocks, and sticks. After he comes up with an idea that he thinks will work, he plans it out and then creates it. NOTE: The storybook is purposefully vague about Kwame s successful design because we do not want students to believe that Kwame s solution is the only solution. 16

17 Later that evening, Kwame asks his father to help test his design. Kwame s father sits down with his drum and uses Kwame s representation to try and play the rhythm, but it s not quite right. Kwame sets out to Improve his representation and a few days later, he sends out his homemade spectrogram to Kofi. 17

18 Every day, Kwame practices his drumming for the Odwira Festival and waits to hear from Kofi. One evening, there is a phone call from Yao, Kofi s dad. 18

19 After Kwame s dad finishes chatting, he calls Kwame to the phone. On the other end, Kwame hears THWACK boom-boom, mah-dohdoh. THWACK boom-boom, mah-dohdoh. Kofi was playing Kwame s rhythm! Kwame beams his father and Professor Payne were right! Using what he knew about sound and a little creativity was all he needed to be an engineer. 19

20 On the day of the festival, Kwame sits nervously on the bus. Will he and Kofi really be able to play together, even though they have never practiced in the same room? 20

21 Soon it is time for their performance. As Kwame and Kofi play together in perfect rhythm, Kwame feels the drumming in his hands, in his ears and in his heart. 21

Call out important points and goals of the story, emphasizing that since the students will undertake the same design challenge as the character in the storybook, it is

22 Call out important points and goals of the story, emphasizing that since the students will undertake the same design challenge as the character in the storybook, it is important to introduce the challenge and give it context. In addition, the story also introduces a relevant field of engineering and introduces the Engineering Design Process. 22

23 Show participants the Kwame and the Engineering Design Process handouts {1-6} Advanced and {1-7} Basic versions. It is important for students to complete this handout as it will be a useful reference during Lessons 3 and 4 as they start to complete each step of the EDP themselves. Also, remind workshop participants that for handouts with closed answers such as these, we also provide answer keys. 23

24 Show participants the other Lesson 1 handouts Ghana {1-1}, Making Noise {1-2}, and Vocabulary List {1-4}. Explain that these handouts will support students learning of vocabulary, geography, and the relevant science content that is featured in the story. They also provide a convenient jumping off point for deeper connections to other curricular areas, such as literacy, social studies, and science. 24

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