Over the previous ten years, I’ve been on a journey to create an interactive, patented curriculum that mixes the facility 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 the right way to play the piano. Since launching, I’ve seen the necessity, want and affect: Make Music Rely is in over 400 colleges with 60,000 registered college students and 20,000+ downloads on iOS and Android gadgets.
And right now, I’m excited to share a brand new milestone: we’ve got partnered with IBM to make use of their cutting-edge synthetic intelligence (AI) instruments to assist personalize college students’ instructional journeys, empowering college students to expertise the real-time functions of studying.
Creating the foundational instruments for pupil success
Make Music Count was born out of the understanding and realization that math is a foundational instrument for all kids’s instructional success. Too usually, math instruction generally is a one-size matches all strategy, which may finish with college students pondering that “math is boring.” Our multidisciplinary technique builds engagement in math by centering play within the pupil’s studying course of.
We designed Make Music Rely to particularly assist second by means of twelfth-grade college students clear up math equations. Each time a pupil will get a math downside proper, the reply unveils a musical observe. 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 tune streams in parallel. Because of this, we’ve seen college students’ confidence and efficiency in arithmetic improve all whereas taking part in—and studying—the piano.
And now, IBM has helped us take our platform to the following 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 pupil’s distinctive wants, enabling college students to ask questions and offering real-time math assist for college kids by means of chat.
Seamless collaboration inside and outdoors the classroom
Early on, we recognized that math instruction wants to incorporate the experiences and cultures of children in school. We noticed that college students have 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 growing 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 training. On common, we see a median improve of 28% in a pupil’s rating from pre- to post-test, and our app sees 100% engagement throughout every pupil’s session, as college students are self-motivated to finish every session with a purpose to expertise the tune in full.
To assist ship on this, our workforce constructed a digital assistant to coordinate discussions amongst a number of college students. Now lecturers inside our companion faculty districts are given time again for productiveness as a result of college students are capable of navigate by means of our supplemental STEAM and SEL curriculum on their very own at their very own tempo.
Academics and tutors can now spend extra time personalizing their classes with college students in-person, whereas the chat perform can assist get college students up-and-running and ask extra fundamental questions. The AI will be taught query patterns over time, and we’re excited concerning the insights it should 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 comfy and made your complete course of seamless and helped educate me about how watsonx can assist startups like ours. I can now see the nice that AI can do for school rooms, which is an oft-overlooked facet of expertise within the classroom.
Our IT workforce wanted assistance on the again finish with knowledge administration and navigating person insights so we will maintain fine-tuning our platform and assets. The IBM workforce helped us find out about and implement the IBM Watson Discovery platform, and it was not an enormous raise. This milestone is a spot the place we will begin and develop, and the AI instrument goes to be taught as we use it with our college students serving to our workforce transition from solely being supplemental to a core curriculum math studying platform.
By co-creating with IBM Ecosystem Engineering, we will save capital round our buyer assist headcount.
Making music depend for all (and for the long run)
Accessibility has all the time been an emphasis for our Atlanta-based workforce. We imagine that each pupil 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 sit up for persevering with to scale Make Music Rely with faculty districts throughout the USA, and even across the globe.
We additionally see thrilling alternatives to scale Make Music Rely into kids’s hospitals, bringing each studying and enjoyable into the palms of those that want them. IBM already has a presence with many hospital methods and can assist companion with us to seek out new collaboration alternatives. Whether or not you favor a laptop computer, cellphone 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
