Shaun Elder

Shaun Elder has been Executive Director since 2014 at Learning Through the Arts, the K-12 division of the Royal Conservatory, one of the largest music education institutions in the world. Mr. Elder is a composer and educator who has designed accessible tools and visualizations empowering math and generalist teachers to include music in their practice. In 2015, a three year academic research study found that participating in Learning Through the Arts boosted math success for a large cohort of Indigenous students living in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, with the percentage of Grade 9 students reaching provincial standard growing by 22%, closing a persistent gap with non-Indigenous peers. This inspired Shaun to develop ways to bring the tools of music and arts based learning to all classrooms, something that required considerable innovation, as most classroom teaches lack an arts or music background. Shaun collaborated with American music app develop Greg Cerveny and with Canadian Math Department Head, Carol Shiffman, to develop the MathBeat web app and math content. After a multi-year testing process involving hundreds of teachers in Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, and Toronto, Canada, MathBeat is now accessible to interested math teachers world-wide. Teachers have suggested many of the curriculum connections included in the program, and are encouraged to share their ideas and brainstorm with others in the upcoming session at the Make Math Moments virtual conference.