Inspire Students in Music Class with Muro Box (Mexico)
Felipe Gutiérrez Álvarez
Muro Box = Mechanics+ Science + Music
I am Felipe Gutiérrez Álvarez, an elementary school music teacher at The American School Foundation in Mexico City. Tracey Bryan, the Elementary STEAM Coordinator invited me in to test the MuroBox she had requested after seeing it featured on an Indiegogo campaign. She knew that it would be a perfect addition to our resources because it blended mechanics with science and the art of making music. I was excited to see how it could enhance my music classes and immediately wanted to test it and determine how to combine our knowledge of mechanical tools and my music expertise to design the classes.
Muro Box = Analog + Digital Technology
The MuroBox seamlessly mixes analog technology with modern devices and bluetooth allowing students to understand the power of a music box for creation, and not simply view it as a toy that plays one song. When the music box and other acoustic instruments were invented they used technology that was ahead of its time. The fact that we now have a device that mixes the analog and digital technologies, allowing us to connect a mechanical device to a MIDI keyboard is mindblowing.
Muro Box sparked our students' curiosity and motivation for STEM education.
My students were much more able to understand the inner workings of an instrument because of the clear case covering the Muro Box, this in turn sparked their curiosity and fueled more profound questions regarding sound and music in general, allowing me to take my class in a new direction. I purposefully selected teaching my music class highlighting the Muro Box in our school’s elementary Maker Space because I wanted students to understand there is still a great opportunity for innovation with instruments and music. I wanted them to be surrounded by tools and in a space that would inspire them to create. I plan to have my students create their own melodies for the spring musical productions, allowing them to add the unique sound made by a music box to the songs they are digitally creating.
