Using Content-Specific Lyrics to Familiar Tunes in a Large Lecture Setting - educational research findings

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by awa

Music can increase student engagement and support information retention in large lectures. This paper describes biochemistry-related lyrics written to familiar melodies—specifically using a tune from The Flintstones to teach DNA packaging through The Histone Song in a 400–800 student setting. Student perceptions were collected via an anonymous 41-item survey conducted about two weeks before the final exam. Results show high engagement during the performance, strong enjoyment, and continued recall and self-study behavior, along with generally positive views on the song’s usefulness as a learning tool.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages5

Reading Time13 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Background on music and memory

Rationale for familiar melodies

The Histone Song in biochemistry lectures

Survey design and results

Classroom engagement and enjoyment

Use outside lecture and perceived helpfulness

16 Using Content-Specific Lyrics to Familiar Tunes in a Large Lecture Setting Derek T. McLachlin University of Western Ontario Music can be used in lectures to increase student engagement and help students retain information. In this paper, I describe my use of biochemistry-related lyrics written to the tune of the theme to the television show, The Flintstones, in a large class setting (400-800 students). To determine student perceptions, the class was surveyed several weeks after the song was used. Students reported a high level of engagement and enjoyment during the song. Many students found the song to be a helpful study tool. To guide future song selection, the students were also asked to indicate their familiarity with 30 popular songs from the past 50+ years. The songs that were least familiar to the students were all released before 1980, but some older songs were well known. The results support the use of content-specific lyrics set to familiar tunes as an educational tool, and provides information about specific songs that would or would not be suitable for this purpose. Learning textual a song requires storage of melodic and information into memory. Although music and text are processed in different parts of the brain (Samson & Zatorre, 1991; Besson, Faïta, Peretz, Bonnel, & Requin, 1998), song tunes and lyrics are associated with each other in memory, such that the recall of one aids in the recall of the other (Calvert & Tart, 1993; Ginsborg & Sloboda, 2007) . Teachers can take advantage of this association to help students learn concepts related to their field of study by presenting information in the form of a song. It is easier to learn unfamiliar words when they are set to a familiar tune rather than an unfamiliar tune (Wolfe & Hom, 1993; Claussen & Thaut, 1997) . Therefore, it is better to associate information to be learned with a tune that is already apart of long-term memory. For this reason, teachers have written content-specific lyrics to popular songs (Dickson & Grant, 2003; Gilbert, 2006) to associate new information with melodies already present in the student’s long-term memory. The intent of this practice is to help students retain information in a fun and engaging way. A notable author of such songs in my field (biochemistry) is Dr. Kevin Ahern of the Depart- ment of Biochemistry and Biophysics at Oregon State University (Ahern, n.d.) . Examples of songs he has written are B-DNA (to the tune of YMCA), The Sound of Glucose (to the tune of A Few of My Favourite Things), and The Cell’s Lament (to the tune of Yesterday) . In my introductory, second-year biochemistry course, I have used The Histone Song (Gilbert, 2006) in a lecture on DNA packaging. The lyrics of this song, written by Scott F. Gilbert of the Department of Biology at Swarthmore College, describe the packaging of DNA into nucleosomes. The song is sung to the tune of the theme to the television show The Flintstones. I project the words onto a screen, and invite the students to sing the song with me, a cappella. I also ask the students to clap in time to keep the beat. Student-captured video of the use of the song in my class can be viewed on Youtube (Meet the histones!, 2008). After class, the lyrics to the song are made available to the students via the internet. This is a popular component of the lecture, based on comments received from students in person and on anonymous course evaluations. To better evaluate the effectiveness of this song as a learning tool, I was interested in obtaining a broader sample of student opinion. In addition, in 2007 it struck me that The Flintstones originally aired in the early 1960s, but the vast majority of my students were born in the late 1980s. I was therefore concerned that many students would be unfamiliar with the tune to the show’s theme song, making The Histone Song less effective as a teaching tool. Most of Dr. Ahern’s songs are also based on songs popular before 1980,

FAQs

How does the paper use music to support learning in lectures?

It presents course concepts through content-specific lyrics set to familiar tunes, leveraging associations between music and memory to aid recall of related information.

What was The Histone Song used to teach?

In an introductory, second-year biochemistry course, it was used in a lecture on DNA packaging and nucleosomes.

How were student perceptions measured?

The author distributed an anonymous 41-item survey during the last class of the semester in December 2007, then analyzed responses on engagement and perceived helpfulness.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by awa