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MAP Students Showcase at Open House

MAP student showcases his work

Last Sunday, we had an open house event, which was open to the public. MAP students showcased what they have learned at MAP over the past few months.

MAP students performed music and showcased for each other, as well as visitors from the general public. Each student contributed to the activity in some way. When we were finished, I compiled a video of their showcased work. Please check out the following video to see what the kids are doing.

MAP Student Showcase Video

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Student Showcase from Jan. Open House

What are the Kids Learning?

MAP students are learning so much in their classes. Of course, they are learning music, art, and computer programming, and they are studying with some of the most knowledgeable instructors in their respective fields. However, here at MAP we understand that students need a holistic education. That is why, included with lesson packages, students are invited to perform weekly in sharing sessions.

Weekly Sharing Sessions

How many times have you learned something only to find out that you were not able to use what you learning? Performance, showcasing, and portfolios should be a central part of everyone’s education. We do not understand something until we try to show what we learned to others. This is one of the many reasons that we offer weekly sharing sessions.

2nd Graders are the “Makers” of their own Games

Near the end of the video, one of the students says of his game, “I am the maker”. It is amazing to hear this 2nd grader describing himself this way. Imagine a world where kids envision themselves as the creators and the makers of their technology. This is categorically different than kids passively playing video games. Our Music+Code classes empower kids to participate in the creation their technology. Led by the legendary instructor Walter Bender, who co-founded One Laptop Per Child and Sugar Labs, these students really learn how to dominate their computers, while having fun in the process.

Interested in Learning More?

You can always feel free to contact us from this site, by phone, or email.

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Music+Code Crowdfunding Campaign Kickoff: Selections

Last November we hosted polymath musician Rob Flax to kick off our Music+Code crowdfunding campaign. Rob played a variety of music, including his latest single, but most of the music centered around math and music in some way. You can check out selected samples from the concert below.

Fractal Hornpipe

Rob started the concert with his original composition, Fractal Hornpipe. The melody to fractal hornpipe has the structure of a fractal while still being musically satisfying. Click on the player below to listen to his live performance.

Fractal Hornpipe by Rob Flax as performed for Music+Code Campaign Kickoff

That’s a fun challenge I set for myself… Can something be the best of both worlds? Can I have good music that is also good math? […] I want it to be something that is mathematically rigorous, that has fractal structure, but is also fun to listen to…

Rob Flax, Music+Code Campaign Kickoff 11/15/2020

Fractal 2

After Rob’s wonderful performance of “Fractal Hornpipe, he then performed “Fractal 2”. This piece is composed from a snippet of “Fractal Hornpipe”. The rationale, as he explained it is that because fractals go on forever it would be nice to have Fractal Hornpipe be the start of other music (i.e. and not be a dead-end in fractal creation/similarity).

“Fractal 2” by Rob Flax

Factorial’s Revenge

Next, Rob played an interesting piece that he co-created with one of his patron’s (who is also a polymath musician) who also attended the concert (and also contributed to the campaign — thank you, Lynz!). The piece features a sequence of repeated notes that ends up to be a factorial (i.e. 4, followed by 3, then 2, and 1).

It’s the math operation with the most “Zazz”!

Rob Flax, Speaking of Factorials (11/15/20)

Grand Finale: Rob plays with Music Blocks

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Rob Flax Music+Code Final Performance with Music Blocks

To end the concert, Rob played together with Music Blocks, visual programming language. MAP instructor, Devin Ulibarri, created a script (i.e. some computer code) that created randomly generated music to perform together with Rob. Rob Flax, being a master improvisor, created melodic phrases on the fly to respond to Devin’s program.

What is Music+Code Crowdfunding Campaign?

Rob’s concert is the first in a series of performances to promote our Music+Code crowdfunding campaign. The campaign is a fundraising effort to hire professional musicians to be featured artists on videos for our Music+Code curriculum. MAP instructors Walter Bender and Devin Ulibarri are leading the effort to create Music+Code lesson plans which you can check out right here on the MAP website. Rob was a great choice to start the campaign because he knows math and music very well, and the Music+Code curriculum is very rich in musical and mathematical concepts.

How you can participate in Music+Code Crowdfunding Campaign?

Here are three ways that you can participate in the Music+Code crowdfunding campaign.

Note: Audio recordings (without video) on this page are copyright (2020) of Rob Flax (i.e. recorded by Rob Flax) and are used with permission. Video on this page is copyright (2020) of Remake Music, LLC. All works are copyright under Creative Commons Share-Alike 4.0 license.