MUSIC MIXED

WITH
SCHOOLWORK
BY: HAILEY EPLER
 PROBLEM/QUESTION

¡ Does the type of music you listen to affect your

educational performance?
I think the results of the participants work will vary depending on what
music they are listening to, and each genre of music will influence the
participants quiz results. Additionally, I think that calm music such as
classical music will display higher results and exotic music such as metal
will display lower results.

HYPOTHESIS
 MATERIALS

§ Headphones § 3 Different
§ Timer
§ Music Playing Simple Math
§ Pencil Device (ex. Activity
§ Pen Phone, iPod, Worksheets
MP3 Player, (Can be found
§ Calculator
Computer, etc.) HERE)
PROCEDURE Step 1
• Connect headphones to
music playing device and
give headphones to the quiz
taker.
Step 4
• When ready, tell your quiz
taker to flip over their
worksheet to begin. Start
the timer.
Step 7
• Select a new music genre
and song and give the quiz
taker a new math activity
worksheet.
Step 2
• Select a song from a
particular music genre
(Classical, Rock, Metal, Jazz,
Pop, Country, etc.) and press
play.
Step 5
• At the one-minute mark,
pause the music and tell the
quiz taker to stop.
Step 8
• Repeat steps 2-6.
Step 3
• Give one math activity
worksheet to quiz taker,
paper must be faced down.
Step 6
• Using the pen and calculator,
grade the quiz and mark
how many the quiz taker got
correct.
Step 9
• Repeat this process again
until you have a total of 3
quizzes and have played 3
different songs from 3
different genres for each
quiz.
 RESULTS/DATA
Quiz Results
The following charts display the 10

number of correct answers (out 9

of 10) each paritipant earned on 8

each quiz along with the 7

corresposnding music genre. 6

4
Genre Classical Metal Pop
3
Kendall 9 9 9
2

1
Chris 8 8 9
0
Kendall Chris Diana
Diana 6 9 8 Classical Metal Pop
 CONCLUSION
This experiment showed that there is little to no difference in
quiz results based on the music genre. Contrary to my hypothesis,
metal music displayed higher results compared to classical music. In
my experiment I asked my participants how each genre made them
feel during their quiz, each said that the metal music was distracting,
and the classical music was soothing. This makes me wonder if
people work better when they are outside their comfort zone
versus when they are calm and comfortable. I also wonder if the
volume of the music has an impact on one’s concentration. Overall, I
am interested in investigating this concept further to see and
understand the impact music has on one’s educational performance.