Trash transformed into music in an interdisciplinary project that encouraged Corbett Prep students to flex their STEM skills, practice music composition and think globally.

And it all began with a book.

Students in first through fifth grade read “Ada’s Violin,” Susan Hood’s true story about the Recycled Orchestra of Cateura in Paraguay. Students learned that the residents of Cateura, a city built on a landfill, created musical instruments out of garbage. Corbett Prep music teachers asked students what they would do in a similar situation.

Working together, classroom teachers, music teachers and even the Corbett Prep facilities team collected materials and set up construction stations so students could experience what they had read in an entirely different way.

Students waded through piles of items outside, picking out odds and ends to assemble into instruments. Some students knew exactly what they wanted to build, while others experimented with different combinations until they were happy with the results.

Students twanged rubber-band strings on guitars made from cereal boxes. They rattled maracas made from water bottles and dried beans. They coaxed notes from flutes that started as PVC pipe.

Music teachers coached students on changes they could make to elicit the best sound from their creations. Once the students finished building, the music team challenged them to write and perform their own compositions on their instruments.

As they sifted through recyclables and experimented with different instrument plans, the students drew important connections to “Ada’s Violin.” They developed a better understanding of life in another part of the world and empathy for the challenges the town faced to have access to music.

“It made me feel a connection, because we both had to make stuff from scratch,” said Michael, a fifth grader. “But it was much harder for them.”