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		Summer Music Education Reprinted from June 2006 Issue -by REBECCA PACKARD Incorporating pop music in music education curriculum can tap into kids current musical interests, provide unique insight into America’s cultural heritage, and be a fun way to keep music education going during the summer. Seattle’s Experience Music Project (EMP) has a number of resources for individual patrons, public and private school educators, homeschoolers, and community organizations like the YMCA and the Boy’s and Girl’s Club. Self-guided tours of the EMP museum and “investigations” workshops are available throughout the summer as well as the school year. Through interactive exhibits in the self-guided tour, students learn more about America’s music culture, making music, music technology, and the music industry. EMP’s website, www.emplive.org, has worksheets to give meaning to the self-guided exploration (look under “visit,” then “education,” then “curriculum.”) The sheets could easily be printed off to use on a family road trip, but if you want to get the discounted education rates ($5 for students and chaperones rather than $14.95 or $15.95 for students and $19.95 for adults) you may want to get together a group of homeschoolers (there’s a fifteen student minimum) or encourage your child’s school to organize a trip. Investigations workshops are on songwriting, the oral tradition of music, acoustics, and Pacific Northwest rock. They are 45 minutes long and designed to correspond with self-guided tours. Gwen Wilson, program specialist in EMP’s education department, said there is no minimum number of students for the workshops, but they cost $200 for groups of 25 kids or less (with up to 7 chaperones) and $230 for groups of 30. Admission to the museum is included. For those who can’t make the trip any time soon but still like the idea of teaching their kids through pop music, there are free lesson plans on the “Teacher’s Clearinghouse” page (under education).