The Mighty Sky: Learn Astronomy Through Music | Futurist Transhuman News Blog

I dont like childrens music. Its nearly always synthesized music with high-pitched melodies and dumb lyrics. It takes as little skill to memorize as it takes to memorize the latest hip hop songs that are all chorus and no verse. However, the world occasionally throws you a little gem of a childrens music album and your faith in the future of human kind is restored. Such a gem is the new science and astronomy-themed The Mighty Sky.

The Mighty Sky is the brainchild of songwriters Beth Nielsen Chapman, Annie Roboff, and the Vanderbilt Dyer Observatory director Rocky Alvey. Each song has a a different genre, from country to blues and even a little rock. Each song also focuses on a different theme:

Some of my favorite excerpts from the lyrics:

If the Sun was the size of a basketball That would make the solar system small The Earth would only be a grain of sand You could hold the planets with one hand ***** Her career was finished and her bright days were done Shed been up on the stage shed outshined the Sun All the other stars said its time to move over But man they got an eyeful when she went supernova ***** The Moon looks big at rise and set And smaller when it climbs up high Its the very same thing if you measure it The Moon is good at fooling our eyes ***** In summer Earths farther away from the Sun In winter its closer they say So distance just isnt why you freeze your buns Your hemispheres tilting away ***** The electromagnetic spectrum, is making a lot of waves You know that they go from radio, to energetic gamma rays But you can see the blues, in all the visible hues The colors of the rainbow, are the energies that we use

The Mighty Sky website includes samples of the songs and all the lyrics, so go check it out if youre curious about this album. The website will also soon include lesson plans themed around each song, but for now The Mighty Sky team has provided me with some sample lesson plans to share with you about the moon phases and sunlight timeline.

Our Curious George obsessed two-year-old is now requesting to dance (listen to The Might Sky) over watching Curious George on TV, which is kind of a big deal. The whole family has listened to this album countless times already and we simply havent gotten bored or annoyed with it. I dont think singing along about the scientific method will ever get old.

Ariane is a programmer married to another programmer. Together they are raising their 2-year-old daughter, who doesn't stand a chance against her nerdy lineage.