Over the previous ten years, I’ve been on a journey to create an interactive, patented curriculum that mixes the ability of math with the enjoyment of music. In our program Make Music Count, college students from elementary to highschool get hands-on expertise fixing math equations whereas studying how one can play the piano. Since launching, I’ve seen the necessity, need and impression: Make Music Rely is in over 400 colleges with 60,000 registered college students and 20,000+ downloads on iOS and Android units.
And right this moment, I’m excited to share a brand new milestone: we have now partnered with IBM to make use of their cutting-edge synthetic intelligence (AI) instruments to assist personalize college students’ academic journeys, empowering college students to expertise the real-time functions of studying.
Creating the foundational instruments for scholar success
Make Music Count was born out of the understanding and realization that math is a foundational instrument for all youngsters’s academic success. Too usually, math instruction is usually a one-size matches all method, which might finish with college students considering that “math is boring.” Our multidisciplinary methodology builds engagement in math by centering play within the scholar’s studying course of.
We designed Make Music Rely to particularly assist second by way of twelfth-grade college students remedy math equations. Each time a scholar will get a math drawback proper, the reply unveils a musical be aware. As soon as all questions in a given set of issues are answered, the corresponding notes are highlighted on a digital piano, enabling college students to play their solutions on a digital keyboard whereas the unique music streams in parallel. Consequently, we’ve seen college students’ confidence and efficiency in arithmetic enhance all whereas taking part in—and studying—the piano.
And now, IBM has helped us take our platform to the subsequent degree by embedding IBM watsonx Assistant and IBM Watson Discovery into Make Music Rely’s net utility. With this integration, we’re ready to make use of AI to customise lesson plans round every scholar’s distinctive wants, enabling college students to ask questions and offering real-time math assist for college students by way of chat.
Seamless collaboration inside and outdoors the classroom
Early on, we recognized that math instruction wants to incorporate the experiences and cultures of youngsters at school. We noticed that college students had been getting left behind of their math research, largely as a result of they didn’t see themselves mirrored within the curriculum. As we started creating Make Music Rely, dialog was on the core. We discovered that creating alternatives for dialogue empowered college students to take possession over their very own schooling. On common, we see a median enhance of 28% in a scholar’s rating from pre- to post-test, and our app sees 100% engagement throughout every scholar’s session, as college students are self-motivated to finish every session as a way to expertise the music in full.
To assist ship on this, our group constructed a digital assistant to coordinate discussions amongst a number of college students. Now lecturers inside our associate college districts are given time again for productiveness as a result of college students are capable of navigate by way of our supplemental STEAM and SEL curriculum on their very own at their very own tempo.
Lecturers and tutors can now spend extra time personalizing their classes with college students in-person, whereas the chat perform may also help get college students up-and-running and ask extra primary questions. The AI will be taught query patterns over time, and we’re excited in regards to the insights it’ll compile to assist us information our curriculum sooner or later.
Personalizing an AI technique that match our enterprise
I used to be cautious at first about what an AI funding would seem like, as an AI technique and its enterprise execution can appear daunting, however IBM put my thoughts relaxed and made your complete course of seamless and helped educate me about how watsonx may also help startups like ours. I can now see the nice that AI can do for lecture rooms, which is an oft-overlooked facet of know-how within the classroom.
Our IT group wanted assistance on the again finish with information administration and navigating person insights so we are able to hold fine-tuning our platform and assets. The IBM group helped us find out about and implement the IBM Watson Discovery platform, and it was not an enormous elevate. This milestone is a spot the place we are able to begin and develop, and the AI instrument goes to be taught as we use it with our college students serving to our group transition from solely being supplemental to a core curriculum math studying platform.
By co-creating with IBM Ecosystem Engineering, we are able to save capital round our buyer assist headcount.
Making music depend for all (and for the longer term)
Accessibility has at all times been an emphasis for our Atlanta-based group. We imagine that each scholar ought to really feel included throughout instruction and welcomed to the chance of being profitable within the classroom. Our platform continues to function a supplemental useful resource for math lessons, music lessons and intervention areas, in addition to enrichment for after-school applications. We stay up for persevering with to scale Make Music Rely with college districts throughout america, and even across the globe.
We additionally see thrilling alternatives to scale Make Music Rely into youngsters’s hospitals, bringing each studying and enjoyable into the arms of those that want them. IBM already has a presence with many hospital techniques and may also help associate with us to seek out new collaboration alternatives. Whether or not you like a laptop computer, telephone or pill, check out Make Music Rely and make math and music enjoyable by taking part in your favourite songs on the (mathematical) piano.
Learn how to start building with IBM
Explore how Make Music Count can inspire your students
