Landfill Harmonic Video Analysis

What an inspirational video; allowing these young people to go from living in the worst of conditions to seeing the beauty in a pile of trash. By taking cans, wood, utensils, buttons, bottle caps, etc., and with imagination and creativity, they learned how to build a musical instrument, play the instruments, and hear the beautiful music that resonates from each one. Not only does the creation of the instruments help the children, but it also gives Maestro Szaran and Mr. Chavez the chance to show their love of music to the boys and girls, and gives Cola the opportunity to take trash and turn it into something that gives so much pleasure to others. What I perceive the students learned and applied as a result of their participation in the Landfill Harmonic project is that each child learned how to utilize each of the 4C’s, and applied the life and career skills for 21st-century

Regarding the 4C’s, the children’s creativity not only came from learning how the instruments were made from trash, but it came from their abilities to create, together, the beautiful music they played with the instruments. Mr. Szaran said it best in the video, “Despite living under dire circumstances, if a person has initiative and is creative, even trash can become an educational tool that could change someone’s life and the lives of others” (Szaran, 2012). Moreover, to think creatively, work creatively with others, and implement innovations, are all skills that prepare individuals (children in this case), for the future (p21.org, 2007). The communication and collaboration the children learned happened through the music they played; by Mr. Chavez teaching them how to play the instruments, and each child communicating and collaborating with each other to form their musical group. As Mr. Chavez states, “This is our mission. Build the bridge between two different worlds. The two worlds aren’t that