MathScienceMusic.org

Music is part of STEM?

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I’ve always been a great fan of Big Band music and Jazz.  So, I was only slightly surprised to hear Herbie Hancock explain the confluence of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) and jazz.   He strongly believes that there is an intrinsic link between building things and playing music.   Which, of course, means that our schools’ idea of cutting music from the curriculum is not helping our kids with STEM education.

Herbie is the chairperson of the Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz.   And, that organization has created MathScienceMusic.org.   The premise is that English and math may be necessary for long-term success of our students, but they are not sufficient.  Music needs to be part of the education equation.

MathScienceMusic.org

As such, the site provides toolkits for teachers, ones that integrates math, science, and music.   The age of the student ranges from kindergarten through college.

The apps are aimed to teach about rhythm and proportion, how to code to create one’s own music, there’s even one to work with fractions and proportions.

Unfortunately, not a great deal of studies have been effected to demonstrate the utility of music education to enhance STEM learning.  (Perhaps this is because the powers-that-be want to cut music and art; having data around demonstrating this is a stupid idea would not prove beneficial to such slashing.)

However, one researcher, Dr. Susan Courey, along with E. Balogh, J. Siker, and J. Paik, published a short study in Educational Studies in Mathematics.  The research involved 67 students were provided 45 minute music lessons, twice a week, for 6 weeks. The music curriculum (“Academic Music”) uses music notation, clapping, drumming and chanting to introduce third-grade students to fractions. (The program is a product of Dr. Courey  and Endre Balogh.)

At the end of the study, the researchers found that the third graders scored 50% higher on a fraction test than those students who lacked the music enhancement to the curriculum.   It seems that tapping out a beat may help children learn difficult fractional concepts,

Hancock and his organization want music added, because we know that students learn differently – not all students can learn the same way.  Using music may truly enhance the ability of many students to pick up math and science skills.

Then, there’s the capability to work together, develop creative expression, and maybe even keeping an open mind- all of which are known to be side-effects when children study music.

La, La, La!

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