11/1/07 - Galileo & Daynes Music Team up to help Kids
Donation of Digital Piano Lab for under-privileged in Salt Lake
Galileo Music – of Cape Cod, Massachusetts – and Daynes Music of Salt Lake City have teamed up to help the Franklin Elementary School of Salt Lake City with an innovative music education and advocacy program. Galileo Music has donated 8 digital pianos while Daynes Music has provided software, curriculum and training to make this one of the most state-of-the-art music labs in the state. Student participation in the lab is being analyzed and documented using the school’s rigorous testing process so that real-world results of student’s achievements can be disseminated to other school districts.
Franklin Elementary is located in a depressed area of Eastern Salt Lake City - where there are over 10 different languages spoken at the school. With this challenging backdrop Dahlia Cordova (Principal at Franklin Elementary) states the goal of this program “is to give underprivileged children the opportunity to develop music skills – and to track the effect on other academic areas”. As Terrilynn Lee (Technology Testing & Data Administrator) explains, every 8 weeks, the students are tested on a variety of skills – including math, reading, verbal and behavior. The school is able to assess the results of the music program to see the effect it is having in other areas. The goal, of course, is to show a positive correlation between studying keyboard music and overall improvements in behavior and academic disciplines.
The lab itself features 8 digital piano-computer workstations plus a teacher station with piano. The computers and software were optimized by Chuck Johnson of Mindware Music- running the “MusiConsole” user interface that makes using the software easy. Brandon Stephens, the PC/LAN technician for the school, setup the entire lab as a network, using the school’s servers to run the software at each station. Each student has their own folder on the server that stores all of their musical projects and assignments.
The school currently uses the lab during regular school hours in half hour segments, but also as an extended day program where younger students are ‘tutored’ by older students. Dixie Maynard (Extended Day Coordinator) stresses how much more effective teaching can be when a younger child can be tutored by one of their older peers. By putting a 6th grade student with a 3rd grade student, Dixie says that each student benefits with improved behavior and learning.
After the first year of this program, University of Utah Doctoral candidate Carol Ann Floyd will be writing a thesis based on the findings.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Gary Girouard of Galileo Music, Skip Dayne of Daynes Music or Franklin Elementary School Principal Dahlia Cordova.
