A community-based STEAM nonprofit
Students walk into our studio to make music. They leave talking about code, circuits, and how every sound they love is built on math, science, and design.
About
You don't have to talk a kid into making music. That's the easy part. What we've spent years figuring out is what happens next — how to walk students from a beat they're proud of into a circuit they wired themselves, a Scratch project they coded, a question about sound they actually want answered.
STEM-Beats Academy is a community-based STEAM nonprofit. We teach music production, coding in Scratch, and hands-on design and build with MakeyMakey. Each pillar starts where students already are — songs, sounds, the things in their headphones — and ends somewhere they didn't expect.
Our work is grounded in peer-reviewed research and aimed at the kids who get the fewest shots at STEM. The idea behind it is simple: creative work is one of the strongest on-ramps anyone's found, and the studio is one of the few rooms that already feels like it belongs to them.
What We Teach
Each program stands on its own — and they're stronger together. Students move between the studio, the laptop, and the workbench all in the same session.
Students learn the tools real producers use — DAWs, MIDI keyboards, mixing, sound design, and scoring audio for film and video — and release work they actually care about.
Students learn to code in Scratch — programming interactive music projects, animations, and simple games. It's a first window into computer science, built around sound.
Students design and wire their own electronic instruments and controllers using MakeyMakey kits — turning Play-Doh, foil, cardboard, and a little code into something that actually plays.
In the Studio
Real students. Real gear. Real projects — from MIDI keyboards and DAWs to Scratch on Chromebooks and student-built instruments.
The Research
Our approach is built on years of academic research in culturally responsive, arts-integrated STEAM education — and we're expanding that work for any young person ready to create.
Founder
Instructor of Musical Audio Recording Technology, The University of Alabama
Ph.D. in Music Technology, Indiana University. Over two decades as a producer, engineer, and educator. His research examines how music production and STEAM education intersect — the idea STEM-Beats Academy is built on.
Students in our community-based programs showed measurable increases (p < .05) in intrinsic motivation, self-efficacy, and self-determination across grade levels.
Engagement is strongest when learning is tied to students' cultural identities, musical interests, and sense of belonging in the room.
Qualitative analysis pointed to these as the core drivers of persistence and confidence in STEAM learning.
Contact
STEM-Beats Academy is growing. Whether you're a parent, an educator, an organization, or just someone who believes in the mission — we'd love to hear from you.