![]() ![]() It relies on the same theory behind Blackwell’s on-site classes. The Make Music Count app currently includes eight lessons on fractions, decimals, timetables, division, algebra, graphing, pre-calculus, and calculus. “Even better, the students have increased their math scores 28 percent.” “Our small team created an app, and now over 200 schools and 45,000 students in eight states are using it,” says Blackwell, whose company is now in the final weeks of the highly competitive Techstars Social Impact Accelerator. More recently the idea for a mobile app came about to extend reach and social impact. In-Person Lessons To Innovative Mobile App By incorporating music into each lesson, students become engaged while simultaneously learning mathematical concepts. He taught the Make Music Count curriculum in after-school and summer enrichment programs. Initially, it was voluntary-based, then he started to secure coveted B2B contracts with school districts. Soon after graduation Blackwell starting working with schools in and around Atlanta. Three years later Blackwell graduated from Atlanta’s Morehouse College with a sought-after four-year math degree. He came up with the novel idea that connecting music to math is a creative, engaging, and stimulating method to grasp even the most complex formulas. It was only during his sophomore year of college that Blackwell finally connected the dots. And throughout K-12 he was a proficient multi-instrumentalist but lacked confidence in math, which he describes as “math phobia.” He has been playing piano since he was five-years-old and is classically trained in jazz and gospel. “Traditional math lessons are taught so that math is feared.” Math Phobia To Impactful Teacherīlackwell’s entrepreneurial journey is deeply personal. The issue is the way that math is taught, adds the Connecticut native who now resides in Atlanta. I want to help kids use music to learn math, to help them embrace a daunting subject while having fun.” ![]() ![]() “The reason Make Music Count works so well is because we use songs that our students listen to at home. “It’s time for education to have a culturally relevant approach,” says Blackwell. ![]()
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