So this is what I'm doing for my thesis.

It's been a while since I've posted, and a lot of research and project definition has happened since then—rather than do a full recap, I'll just share some key slides from the presentation I gave to the design faculty last Friday.

So STEM education is a problem in the US. But so are the arts. And it's been proven in countless studies that creative thinking and proficiency in things like music and sculpture correlates to better performance in STEM subjects. Schools are realizing that and are attempting to integrate "making" and creative problem solving into the pedagogy for these subjects. The new buzzword that has surfaced is...

STEAM is all about the teacher facilitating creative exploration, as opposed to just lecturing and doing assignments with the class. However, it's often tactically difficult to make the transition to a new kind of lesson planning, especially given difficult time constraints and testing performance risks during this kind of transition. Providing a low-risk and accessible activity platform for teaching these concepts STEAM-style could make life a lot better for teachers and their students.

For my thesis I'm going to be combining musical explorations with correlating math concepts, making an easily-implemented project kit for teachers. Here's a quick concept diagram of how this might work:

And the ideal picture of how this development process will break down over the next several months:

I still need to do a TON of research as to how this might work technically and which topics I should narrow this down to—if any of y'all have ideas or resources, don't hesitate to respond in the comments or at jmclean2@nd.edu.