Venture Grants

The halls at K.D. Markley Elementary School will soon be alive with the sound of color. That’s right, color, as in musical rings that turn colors into sounds.

Kindergarteners through 5th graders in Paige Seaton’s Music Room at KDM are using Specdrums app-enabled musical rings to turn color into sounds thanks to a GVSDEF Venture Grant titled “The Rainbow Connection.” When students tap on a color using an optical sensor, a sound plays.

You can find out what color sounds like during “The Rainbow Connection: The Sound of Color,” which runs from June 3-8. The art, color, coding and sound that more than 600 of Ms. Seaton’s students created will be installed throughout the hallways of KDM.

“You will get to experience the immense creativity of our students by looking at their creation and hearing what they have decided their colors and patterns sounds like,” says Ms. Seaton, adding the KDM Music Room Facebook page (facebook.com/kdmmusicroom) will highlight the students’ creations throughout the week for those unable to attend in person.

Ms. Seaton applied for and was awarded one of two Venture Grants awarded by the Great Valley School District Education Foundation’s (GVSDEF). Since 2008, the grants have funded special projects and programs that provide innovation in teaching and learning and in technology.

Ms. Seaton used her Venture Grant to purchase Sphero Specdrums, app-connected rings that provide an accessible, portable and tactile way to discover music creation. Specdrums fit on a finger and let the user play a musical note when tapping one of the rings against a specific color, creating music by using different colored notes.

“Specdrums are more than just fun,” says Ms. Seaton. “They help students learn rhythm, recognize tone, support memorization, encourage creativity, encourage pattern and order, and so much more.”