Strengthening Youth Mental Health Outcomes and 21st Century Skill Sets Through the Integration of Progressive Music Instruction with Wellness Strategies and Collaborative Technologies

Anthony Kolozetti of My School ROCKS in Canada will develop an educational music application for schools that combines collaborative technology with the universal medium of music to help young people succeed academically and acquire 21st century skills such as mindfulness, stress management, resilience and empathy. Growing numbers of students are suffering from unhappiness at school, experiencing daily anxiety and stress. To address this, they will exploit the synergy between music, education, and mental wellness by creating a platform where students can easily write, record, mix, and share curriculum-based music projects. They will consult with professionals working on neuroplasticity to identify lesson types that have optimal effects on the brain. They will then bring together artists, mental health professionals, technology experts, students, parents, and educators to identify goals and use them to create lesson plans and resources for social emotional learning, song-writing and artistic performance, that can be digitalized in an application. They will also integrate modules that enable students to create their own music-based projects, which can become school-wide performances, without the need for trained music teachers, to showcase songwriting, musicianship, and collaboration. They will pilot test the project over five months in diverse school communities and measure its academic and social impact using surveys and interviews.