Making Sense of Culture

TAKE THE TEMPORARY DISPOSITION SURVEY!

Members: Kittyhawk, Redrobin, Atom, Chica, Chickadee, Enviro, and Mockingjay

General areas of interest: Our group was interested in how we use our senses to perceive different cultural experiences. We were wondering if our emotions or moods, could be affected by different foods, songs or visual works of art.

Specific areas of interest: Food: different flavours, perceptions, music, and sketching

Question development: How different genders react to the exposure to the same stimuli. (Drawing , Flavours(Sour / Sweet), Genres of Music )

RESEARCH QUESTION: How do different genders perceive cultural stimuli? What is the temporary disposition (mood) of different genders after exposure to cultural stimuli:
Food:Sweet, Sour, Plain
Music: Alternative Rock, Pop, Classical and Rock
Drawings:Angry, Sad, Happy

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN:

STEP ONE:
Create Survey to identify volunteers reaction / response to Cultural Stimuli


Temporary Mood Survey

STEP TWO:
Decide what Cultural Stimuli we will include in our experiment.

Music: We want to know how different songs affect the volunteers moods and see how the data changes with the age and gender.

Our songs have to do with different genres of music.
Alternative Rock, Pop, Classical and Rock are our types of music.

Pop- Life in Color by OneRepublic
(https://soundcloud.com/interscope/onerepublic-life-in-color)
Alternative Rock-Leave Out All the Rest by Lin_kin Park (https://soundcloud.com/linkin_park/leave-out-all-the-rest)
Rock- Take Me Away by Autumn Kings
(https://soundcloud.com/autumn-kings/take-me-away)
Classical- Concerto in G Minor op.12 1st Movement by Antonio Vivaldi

Food:
We (Enviro & Mockingjay) decided to collect data on how different genders and ages react to the same food and record the data.

Sour Taste	Plain/Blah Taste	Sweet Taste
Sour Pickles	Crackers	Oreo cookies

Art – Drawings:

Angry Drawing for ANGRY	Happy Drawing for HAPPY 1	Happy Drawing for HAPPY 2	Sad Drawing for SAD

STEP THREE:

Change paper survey to online google forms survey.

TAKE THE TEMPORARY DISPOSITION SURVEY!

STEP FOUR:

Create Station signs. Find Screens (to eliminate distractions)

Station 1 Music 1	Station2 Music 2	Station3 Music 3	Station 4 Music 4	Station 5 Food 1
Pop-Life in Colour by OneRepublic	Alternative Rock-Leave Out All the Rest by Lin_kin Park	Rock- Take Me Away by Autumn Kings	Classical- Concerto in G Minor 1st Movement by Antonio Vivaldi	Sour Pickles

Station 6 Food 2	Station 7 Food 3	Station8 Art 1	Station9 Art 2	Station10 Art 3
Oreo	Cracker	Angry Picture Wolf	Happy	Sad Rainy

Sign up Volunteer Classes and Provide Schedule
Download songs onto iPads and find headphones to use.
Create an “Introduction” to use with each class.

Hi, your teacher has offered to help us complete our project on Making Sense of Culture. We have created an online survey that asks you to respond to different cultural stimuli, like music, food and art.

We have set up 10 stations that you will need to visit. At each station you will answer 3 questions:

1. On a scale of 0-10, how would you rate your mood after listening to this song, art or food? Negative (0) / Positive (10).
2. Please select an emoji based on how would you rate your mood after listening to this this song, art or food?
3. Choose a word based on how you feel after listening to this song, art or food.

A student will guide you through the stations. This survey is completely volunteer. We need students who will take the time to do this seriously.

PROCEDURE:

Station 1 Music - POP	Station 2 Music - ALTERNATIVE ROCK	Station 3 Music - ROCK	Station 4 Music - CLASSICAL

Station 5 Food - PICKLES	Station 6 Food - OREO COOKIE	Station 7 Food - UNSALTED PLAIN SODA CRACKER

Station 8 Art - ANGRY	Station 9 Art - HAPPY	Station 10 Art - SAD

RESULTS:

Responses to Music	Food	Art Graphs

Grade 5-7 students had a positive mood response to Pop, Alternative Rock and Rock. Majority of students had a neutral or negative response on the mood scale towards classical music.	Grade 5-7 students had a positive mood response to the sweet Oreo Cookies and a slightly positive response to the unsalted, plain soda crackers. Students had a more neutral or slightly positive mood after sampling the Pickles.	Grade 5-7 students of both genders had a positive or neutral response to all the art pieces (angry, happy, sad)
Girls had a slightly more positive mood response to pop music and boys had a slightly more positive response to Rock. Both genders had a negative or neutral response Classical music.	Both male and female had a positive mood response towards the food categories, except the boys overall mood response average out to a neutral on the mood scale.	The male and female genders had an opposite mood response to the "happy" and "angry" art pieces. Boys had a far more positive response to the "angry" picture and girls had a more positive mood response to the "happy" picture.

Station 1 Gender Emoji Responses for Pop Music	Station 2 Gender Emoji Responses for Alternative Rock	Station 3 Gender Emoji Responses for Rock Music	Station 4 Gender Emoji Responses for Classical Music

The majority of grade 5-7 students chose a "happy" to a "very happy" emoji to represent their positive mood after listening to pop music.	The grade 5-7 students responded very differently (no observable pattern) to the alternative rock music with the majority choosing the "neutral" emoji.	The majority of grade 5-7 students chose a "calm/neutral to VERY happy" emoji to represent their positive mood after listening to rock music. There were, however, a significant number of students that chose an "unhappy" to an "angry" emoji to represent their mood after listening to rock music.	The majority of grade 5-7 students chose a "calm/neutral to happy" emoji to represent their positive mood after listening to classical music. There were, however, a significant number of students that chose an "unhappy" to an "angry" emoji to represent their mood after listening to the classical music.
More females than males chose a "happy" to a "very happy" emoji to represent their positive mood after listening to pop music.	More males than females chose a "happy" to a "very happy" emoji to represent their positive mood after listening to alternative rock music.	More females than males chose an "unhappy" to an "angry" emoji to represent their negative mood after listening to Rock music.	The were no significant differences to note except that the males chose the more extreme emotion emojis such as the "angry" and a "very happy" emoji more often than the females.

Station 5 Gender Emoji Responses for FOOD -PICKLES	Station 6 Gender Emoji Responses for FOOD -OREOS	Station 7 Gender Emoji Responses for FOOD -UNSALTED CRACKERS

Students had varied mood responses to pickles ranging from an "angry emoji to a "very happy" emoji. More students chose a "neutral" emoji to a "very happy" emoji to represent their mood.	Vast majority of 5-7 students chose a "happy" or "very happy" emoji to represent their mood after eating an oreo cookie.	The majority of 5-7 students chose a neutral to very happy emoji mood response when eating the soda crackers.
Although more students chose a "neutral" emoji to a "very happy" emoji to represent their mood after eating pickles, more males chose an unhappy" to "angry" emoji mood response to eating pickles. Many more females chose a "very happy" emoji to represent their mood after eating a sour pickle.	Both male and female had a similar mood response to the Oreo cookies. Males chose more "very happy" emojis after they ate Oreo cookies. Females chose more "happy" emojis after they ate Oreo cookies. So it appears Males had a more extreme mood change change than girls but both were positive.	There wasn't really a pattern to how male and female students responded.

Station 8 Gender Emoji Responses for Art -ANGRY	Station 9 Gender Emoji Responses for Art -HAPPY	Station 10 Gender Emoji Responses for Art -SAD

The grade 5-7 students responded very differently to the "angry" picture.	The grade 5-7 students responded very differently to the "happy" picture.	The majority of grade 5-7 students chose the sad and neutral emoji
Males responded more positively to the "angry" picture. The girls had a negative response to the "angry" picture.	A great majority of females (31) responded with a "happy" or "very happy" emoji mood response compared to a much lower number of males (11) to the "happy"picture. Six males even chose a "sad" or "mad" emoji mood response when looking at the "happy" picture.	There wasn't really a pattern to how male and female students responded.

FINDINGS

From the results of the survey we found that the majority of students in grades 5-7 indicated a neutral to positive temporary disposition (mood) toward cultural stimuli. We did notice that sometimes male and female responses differed with different stimuli. The most noticeable differences or similarities are listed below.

TEMPORARY DISPOSITION RESPONSE TOWARD MUSIC

Generally students in grades 5-7 had a neutral to positive mood response to music.

In our study, females had a more positive response to pop music than males. We also found that males had a slightly more positive response to rock music than females. There was a significant number (10 females) that chose a negative mood response emoji toward rock music.

In our study both males and females had similar mood responses to classical music. A large number of both male and female had a negative mood response to classical music.

TEMPORARY DISPOSITION RESPONSE TOWARD FOOD

Generally students in grades 5-7 had a positive mood response to food.

When looking at the emoji responses, more males than females had a negative mood response toward sour tastes like pickles. Both male and females had a very positive response to sweet tasting Oreos. No males had a negative mood response to Oreos.

Most students chose a neutral to positive emoji;Even to the plain unsalted crackers.

TEMPORARY DISPOSITION RESPONSE TOWARD ART / DRAWING

The aggressive, angry looking wolf made the majority of males choose a positive mood emoji. More females responded by choosing a negative mood emoji than a positive mood emoji when looking at the aggressive angry, looking wolf. This result was one of the most significant differences in our study. The majority of females chose a positive mood response when looking at the happy picture. Males had a more neutral to negative mood response toward the happy picture..

Together, our data suggests:

1) Females are more likely to have a positive temporary disposition when listening to pop music, eating Oreos and looking at “happy pictures”.

2) Females are more likely to have a negative temporary disposition when listening to rock or classical music and looking at “angry pictures”.

3) Males are more likely to have a positive temporary disposition when listening to rock music, eating Oreos and looking at “angry pictures”.

4) Males are more likely to have a negative temporary disposition when listening to pop or classical music, eating pickles and looking at “happy pictures”.

IMPLICATIONS OF OUR FINDINGS

The fact that music almost always improves the temporary disposition of students in grades 5-7 makes us wonder why music isn’t played during class time or why students aren’t allowed to listen to music on their own devices (using ear buds) more often. We know that listening to music makes your temporary disposition more positive and makes us happy. Do we not learn better when we are happy?

The fact that sweet food makes us feel happy makes made us realize why some people use food as a comforting option and why it has addicting qualities. Does eating chocolate make you happy? Yes…

Concluding Statements

Providing the opportunity for cultural stimuli is really important in our society and schools. Sometimes in schools the focus is primarily on reading, writing and math. Our study clearly demonstrates cultural stimuli is constantly affecting out temporary disposition and therefore this has a great influence on our lives and on learning. Because of the potential positive influence in our lives we should defend programs that have to do with performing arts (Music, Art and Drama) and promote cultural identity. While our study provided evidence of typical gender responses we also saw that not all males of females responded in the same way. Providing choice or a variety of cultural stimuli is also important.

Comments:

Overall your paged turned out great, and you generated an impressive dataset. In closing, I would write a general conclusion about the importance of culture and the arts education and arts programs in our society in general. Does your data suggest these things are important?

One important thing your data clearly shows is that there may be typical male or female responses like the ones you’ve mentioned above but it also shows that these stereotypes definitely don’t apply to everyone so you need to be careful when making generalizations.