This versatile work is ultimately a sensorial work refining the child’s auditory sense. I designed it with the three species of the brood x cicada emergence in Cincinnati in mind, but the work can be reprogrammed to be used with any three sounds – bird songs, letter sounds, etc. Imagine a museum display where you press a button and a sound plays. That is what happens with the top three buttons below the photos of the three different species of cicadas (or birds or letters). The fourth button below plays one of those sounds on random and the child must then match it to the corresponding sound above. The control of error is listening to whether the sounds match. This has been my most ambitious work. I had to teach myself electronics and soldering, but the best part of that is that I’m already dreaming up works about electronics for the cultural shelf. Our local NPR affiliate did a story on this work here.

Download the lesson plan.