Join our STEM+Music Summer Camp: It’s FREE!
Published June 8, 2021 by Rebecca McDaniel | Share this post! 
We are thrilled to offer two FREE summer sessions of our STEM+Music program, “Making Waves.” The program takes place online and is open to students in grades 3-5, anywhere! Read on for more information.
“Making Waves” is an informal STEM + Music class in which students learn about the science behind sound, build their own instruments, and compose original music on those instruments. This summer, thanks to generous support from the National Science Foundation, we are pleased to offer 2 sessions of the program for FREE! All families who participate will take part in a brief post-session survey for the NSF.
Summer camp sessions are each 8 days long (4 weekdays on two adjacent weeks), with one 1-hour class per day. Here are more details:
- Daily at 1pm Eastern Time on the following dates:
- Session 1: July 6-9 (Tuesday-Friday) and July 12-15 (Monday-Thursday)
- Session 2: July 19-22 (Monday-Thursday) and July 26-29 (Monday-Thursday)
- All online: you can join from anywhere!
- For students in grades 3 – 5
- Tuition: FREE! Each student will receive an instrument-building kit in the mail prior to the start of the session.
- By participating in the free session, you are opting in to join a short survey from the National Science Foundation, about the benefits of STEM + Music education.
- To sign up, email [email protected]. Questions should also be emailed to Sean.
- Learn more about the program at MakingWavesEducation.com.
To sign up, email [email protected]. Questions should also be emailed to Sean.
“I personally love music, like, I’m always listening to music and stuff. When I got to make the instruments, it made me think, I could do this at home, to make more varieties of music, instead of just the same thing over and over.”
–Demi Brown, student, Pierre Moran Middle School
“If this would have happened when I was in this age group, it would have opened up a door for music that I never got to experience.”
–Warren Alwine, parent, Elkhart, IN
Making Waves has developed from an ever-growing partnership led by Jay Brockman of the College of Engineering and Center for Civic Innovation at the University of Notre Dame and the GRAMMY®-winning ensemble Third Coast Percussion, as well as the instrument maker South Bend Woodworks and educators from across the United States. Our goal through integrating Arts and STEM education is to inspire students to think both analytically and creatively about the world around them.
The program has been taught in several formats, including in-person, fully online, and different hybrid variations of both to account for social distancing. During the global Covid-19 pandemic of 2020, 10 instructors from 6 different states taught the Making Waves curriculum to over 100 students based in the Midwest. The video above highlights the work of one group of educators and students based in Elkhart, IN.