This learning and teaching module will enhance the current curricular focus on music creation as it meets outcomes in creating and presenting music. In short, it will provide opportunities for students to experience songwriting as a vehicle for that exploration.

Taking into consideration the current research on the brain and how it constructs meaning in the teenage years, this module is designed to be interactive, applicable with authentic learning experiences, and based on a discovery approach.

The digital exhibit, Canary in the Mine: Nova Scotia Mining Disasters and Song, provides an extensive range of songs written to tell stories of tragedy, life experiences in coal mining communities, and disasters in general. This module is intended primarily for instruction in the music classroom, but in an appendix, teachers will find opportunities to collaborate with social studies and language arts teachers through integrated units of work. It is recommended that the activities presented herein become a starting point with these integrated units to provide opportunities for students to experience cross-disciplinary connections.