Math by way of mariachi: Students learn through music
by Mary Bustamante on Jun. 28, 2008, under Education, Local, Special
LEFT: Trumpet players, <strong>Raymond Gallardo</strong>, 14, (left), <strong>Albert Astorga</strong>, 14, <strong>Nicolas Dominguez</strong>, 15, <strong>Francisco Bermudez</strong>, 14, and <strong>Manuel Bueras</strong>, 14, along with classmates, participate in Math Thru Mariachi camp.
Violins and independent variables. Trumpets and sloping graphs. What do they have in common?
At Math Through Mariachi summer camp, about 100 young musicians are learning algebra to the tune of music notes.
After explaining a concept using both algebraic data and musical notes, Daniel Valdez turns on mariachi music as his students graph an equation.
“Did your plane go higher?” Valdez asks his class. “Is it positive or negative?”
As they figure out the pattern on their graph paper, Valdez is snapping beats with his fingers.
The lessons align to state standards, said Crystal Bartels, a University of Arizona math doctoral student who designed them.
Valdez is a mariachi teacher in Las Vegas, as is Adam Romo, program music director. Both are Tucson natives.
They come back each year to teach this three-week summer program through the UA Office of Early Academic Outreach and UA’s GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs).
“We’re successful because we have such good, local talent that grew up in Tucson and are willing to work with us,” said Elizabeth Arnot-Hopffer, GEAR UP associate director. She said many went to the same schools these students attend now.
Romo said students also learn about high school life, planners, calendars and note-taking from instructors who are like them.
“They see us as not that much older than they are,” Romo, 23, said, “and we’re Hispanic, and they say, ‘I can do that, too.’ ”
College coach Victor Mercado said the program gives students “the opportunity to play what they learn.
“In a lot of math classes, you have a lot of manipulations to help students learn. Music works for this group because they can see, they can read it – and they can play it.”
Mercado said the goal of GEAR UP is to increase the number of underrepresented groups in colleges and to make sure students are able to succeed when they get there.
GEAR UP officials have determined high school algebra I is a “gatekeeper” course. Make it through that class and you can continue to geometry, algebra II and trigonometry – and graduate with the four units of math universities require. Fail it, or not take it that first year, and you won’t have the required math units needed for college.
“There are a lot of outreach programs that say ‘you should go to college, there are lots of benefits. Come see our college,’ but that’s it,” Mercado said. “We make sure our GEAR UP students are academically prepared to succeed in the course work.”
Students in Math Through Mariachi, many from low-income families and many who would be the first in their families to go to college, are pre-tested at the start of the program and then post-tested, so instructors can see their progress.
Everyone knows from the start that this is not an easy three weeks. In addition to the math work, the students also perform two free concerts, playing material they learn here, Arnot-Hopffer said. The first was Friday. The final one will be 3 p.m. Wednesday in Crowder Hall at UA’s College of Music.
“When students come in on the first day and we give them the invitation for the first concert – and it’s in 10 days, they know the expectations are going to be very high,” Arnot-Hopffer said. “It’s rigor, relevance and relationship.”
Adam Velasco, 14, said he was struggling in eighth-grade algebra. “Here, I can see where I went wrong,” he said. “I can see similarities with music notes I read and it makes it a lot easier.”
Nicolas Dominguez, 14, appreciates the high expectations. They “help me keep my math skills sharp. I’ve relearned stuff I was forgetting already.”
Trumpet instructor Daniel Valdez uses mariachi music to teach math concepts.
