The Science Teacher's Song book.

During #asechat last night the topic of songs to use in science lessons came up... well, ok, I brought it up.

I loved using songs during lessons (and now on CPD courses) often at the beginning to set the scene as the learners arrive or at the end when they're reviewing/reflecting on their learning.

Other educators obviously felt the same, and suggestions came in so I thought I'd collect some here.  The IOP PTNC email list also discussed songs to use in lessons a while ago - as you can see, Physicists have obviously given the topic some considerable thought.

If you have any other suggestions, let me know and I'll add them in.

Biology
Reproduction -  Grease 2
Let's talk about sex - Salt n Peppa
The Circle of Life - The Lion King
Breathe - Prodigy
Dry bones (the knee bones connected to...) 
The drugs don't work - The Verve
Food, glorious food - Oliver

Chemistry
The Elements Song - Tom Lehrer (to be played at every opportunity)
Opposites Attract - Paula Abdul (Electrolysis)
Mole day music video http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Mole-Day-Music-Video-from-the-Virtual-School-6297022/

Physics
Under Pressure - Queen
Opposites Attract - Paula Abdul (electrostatics, or magnetism)
Collide - Leona Lewis
Defying Gravity - Wicked

Good Vibrations - Beach Boys 

Swing Low Sweet Chariot 

You spin me right round - Dead or Alive

Spinning around –  Kylie

Galaxy Song 

Nine million bicycles - Katie Melua 

Adjusted bicycle version! Correct Physics 

It’s electricifying - John Travolta 

Lightning – The Wanted 

Can u feel the force - The Real Thing

Supernova – Oasis Oasis

Supermassive black hole - Twilight 

The sun is a mass of incandescent gas - Dottie Evans 

Wonderful World – Louis Armstrong 

Chain Reaction – Diana Ross 

Atomic – Blondie

Quark song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0kXkWXSXRA

Danger High Voltage - Electric Six 

I've got the power - Snap! 

Sound of da police - KRS One 

He ain't heavy he's my brother - The Hollies (for gravity) 

Ray of Light - Madonna 

Spectrum - Florence and the Machine 

Moment like this - Leona Lewis 

Perfect moment - Martine McCutcheon 

Magic moments - Perry Como

Speed and Velocity - They might be Giants  

Why Does the Sun Shine? - They Might Be Giants

Somewhere over the rainbow - Israel Kamakawiwo Ole   Judy Garland

Speed of light – Coldplay 

Our Velocity - Maximo Park
Apply some pressure - Maximo Park
Starlight - Muse
Black hole sun - Soundgarden
Strange Charm - Hank Green
Large Hadron Rap http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j50ZssEojtM

The Particle Physics song (Higgs, Higgs glorious Higgs)


And good bands:
Astrocapella http://www.astrocappella.com/songs.shtml
They might be Giants 'Here comes science'
Kraftwerk

Singing Science

One of the things I really like to do in a lesson is to play music which is related to the topic.  Sometimes they are straight-forward, but not always.  Some kids figure out what I'm doing quite early on, and then it becomes part of the lesson for them to guess what the topic is, or how the song is related to it.

Some examples:
Chain reaction (the Diana Ross version of course) for anything to do with Radioactivity.
The Vegetable song (Beach boys) for Digestion
Good morning starshine (from the musical Hair) for Life cycle of stars
A New England (Kirsty MacColl) for Satellites

However, in a much crueller way, I also like to play 'science songs' which get inside students heads and hopefully helps them remember the ideas.  Most of these are from 1950s or 60s recordings which can be found at 'Singing Science Records' .  They are very dated, but I love them.  At a previous school I included 'E-lec-tric-ity' in the department lesson plans, and you could hear students coming out of their science lessons singing this song.  Great!

Other classics of the genre:
The photosynthesis song by Peter Weatherall
Meet the elements by They Might Be Giants
The elements by Tom Lehrer
Bunsen Burner song by John Otway
Electric Car by They Might Be Giants
Digestion Blues by Joe Crone