Students of math and music

A class of second-grade musicians, standing behind 33 new electric

keyboards, waved small wooden pointers as they chanted in unison,

“This is the bass clef, I play with my left hand, in a deep voice.”

As their music teacher gave the students praise, Perry Elementary

School’s music room became a sanctuary full of orchestral sounds.

“You guys are so awesome!” said music teacher Nelda Alvarez. “My

musical geniuses!”

The mid-morning music lesson is part of a new learning program

recently introduced at Perry Elementary School. The Math+Music

program was designed by the Music Intelligence Neural Development

Institute, a nonprofit research organization in Costa Mesa that

promotes the idea that teaching music by specialized methods can

improve math skills. Musical training establishes spatial-temporal

reasoning, which helps to develop problem-solving skills crucial to

math comprehension, institute officials said.

“[Spatial temporal reasoning] is a way of thinking that you’re not

using your language and you’re having to think over time,” Perry

Elementary Principal Elaine Keeley said.

Keeley said the program teaches students to plan ahead.

“In the long-term, I think we’re increasing motivation for

school,” Keeley said.

Nicole Goodman’s second-grade class comes to the music lab twice a

week. Alvarez teaches the students how to play the keyboard. Students

not only learn to play an instrument but also discover a relationship

between math and music.

“I wanted the children to know about music and how it correlates

with math,” Alvarez said.

Across the school courtyard, Monica Nash’s third-graders were

taking part in another aspect of the Math+Music program by learning

math lessons, such as place value or measurement, from interactive

computer games. The lessons are first taught without the use of

written language or numbers.

“Kids get the concepts before they put numbers and words into it,”

Nash said.

Even the students’ passwords and computer log-ins are animals and

colors. Nash said her class comes to the computer lab twice a week

and they love it.

Thursday’s program had a space theme and featured an alien and a

penguin named JiJi. Keeley said the penguin is a constant throughout

the institute’s teaching programs.

“JiJi is a little penguin and he’s always in the games and he

teaches us stuff,” said Jeremy Maxwell, 9, of Huntington Beach.

To pass a level in the game, the student must learn the math. The

program automatically advances them as they increase their knowledge.

This allows the students to progress individually, said Nash.

“It’s all based on them developing skills and moving up,” Nash

said.

The institute also monitors each student’s progress and provides

the school with the information, Keeley said. For the first year,

Perry Elementary officials decided to implement the program in

kindergarten through third grade.

“We wanted to be able to see them progressing through the whole

program,” Keeley said.