Redefining STEAM
for Young Learners
An immersive experience where music becomes the gateway to science, technology, engineering, creative problem-solving, and career exploration.
What is Jazz Lab 2.0?
Building on Jazz Lab Mobile—a pilot launched in 2024 to bring music-centered STEAM learning to students in after-school settings—Jazz Lab 2.0 expands the model into the school day.
Jazz Lab 2.0 is a mobile, STEAM learning experience that uses music as an entry point into science, technology, engineering, creativity, and career exploration. Rooted in the principles of jazz—improvisation, collaboration, adaptability, and communication—students move through three hands-on labs where they try, build, play, experiment, and discover—turning abstract concepts into experiences they can see, hear, create, and understand.
At the heart of Jazz Lab is learning by doing. Students engage alongside working musicians, engineers, scientists, technologists, and other field experts, gaining not only exposure to STEM concepts, but a glimpse of the people and careers behind them. The result is an environment designed to move young people from curiosity to confidence—and from knowing that to knowing how.
AT A GLANCE
1 Day
Immersive experience
4.5 Hours (includes lunch)
Hands-on learning
Up to 60
Students per experience
Grades 6–8
Middle school learners
3 Arts-Integrated Labs
Sciences of Sound · Improvisational Design · VR Musicmaking and/or EcoJazz Sound Lab
Meet Our Partners
Inside Jazz Lab 2.0
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Sciences of Sound
ART + SCIENCE
Using guitar, upright bass, drums, and their own voices, students explore the physics of sound through live demonstrations, close observation, and hands-on experimentation.
In the Lab: Vibration · Pitch · Tension · Energy
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Improvisational Design
ART + ENGINEERING
Applying jazz thinking and using everyday materials, students work in teams to design and build original instruments. They prototype, test, iterate, and refine their creations, discovering how collaboration, improvisation, and problem-solving shape the engineering design process.
In the Lab: Engineering Design · Prototyping · Iteration · Collaboration
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Virtual Reality Musicmaking
ART + TECHNOLOGY
Using the Virtuoso VR app, students play digital instruments and experiment with music in an immersive environment. Then they step inside a live jazz quintet through VR, experiencing the musicians, instruments, and interplay from a whole new perspective.
In the Lab: Virtual Reality · Digital Instruments · Music Creation · Immersive Jazz
What People Are Saying
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“I heard a student whisper to another, ‘This feels like a safe space—just be yourself.’”
Educator/School Staff · Jazz Lab 2.0 at Berne Union
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“Students who are typically quiet and do not participate much were fully engaged. At pickup, every student described the day with something like, ‘It was great.’”
Site Visitor · Licking Gifted & Talented
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“Watching the students gain control of the chaos during their second design iteration was wonderful. Once they adopted a structured framework, they arrived at more complete answers. They were learning without even realizing it.”
Adult Observer · Licking Gifted & Talented and C-TEC Licking
Expanding Access to STEAM
With support from Battelle, the Franklin County Commissioners’ Office of Economic Engagement & Community Development (EECD), and AEP Ohio, A Tribe for Jazz brought Jazz Lab 2.0 directly to 451 middle school students across Franklin, Licking, and Fairfield counties—expanding access to immersive, arts-integrated STEM learning.
Eastland-Fairfield Career & Technical Schools and C-TEC of Licking County served as key implementation partners, helping us connect Jazz Lab 2.0 with schools and students across the region and bring the experience to life in their communities.
Across five locations, Jazz Lab 2.0 transformed schools and career-technical education centers into pop-up innovation studios, where students experimented, designed, created, and explored connections and future career possibilities.
JAZZ LAB 2.0 SITES
Eastland-Fairfield Career & Technical Schools · C-TEC of Licking County · Watkins Memorial High School · Berne Union Local Schools · Amanda-Clearcreek Local Schools
IMPACT
451 Students Reached
3 Central Ohio Counties
5 Program Locations
92% Felt a Sense of Belonging
92–94% Actively Engaged Across the Labs
178 Named a Career They Wanted to Explore
What Our Partners are Saying
Jennifer Blackstone, Assistant Superintendent, Eastland-Fairfield Career & Technical Schools
“Jazz Lab 2.0 gives middle school students a hands-on, creative way to see how their interests can connect to real opportunities in STEAM fields. By meeting students early with engaging, immersive experiences, we’re helping them build confidence and envision pathways that can carry them into high school, higher education, and beyond.”
Jayme Blackstone, Career Development Coordinator,
C-TEC of Licking County
“For career tech educators, Jazz Lab 2.0 creates a positive, exploratory environment where middle school students can begin connecting creativity to career pathways. “By meeting them with music and imagination, we can ignite interest in design, technology, and engineering — and help students envision futures they hadn’t imagined."
Bring Jazz Lab to Your Community
Contact us.
Interested in bringing Jazz Lab 2.0 to your school or program?
Are you a funder seeking to support school district with innovative programming?
Or want to learn more about collaboration opportunities? We’d be glad to connect.
Please reach out, and a member of our team will follow up promptly.
📩 SMatthews@atribeforjazz.org