When Debbie French introduced material from the National Science Foundation (NSF)–funded National STEM Guitar Project in her physics classroom to teach about topics like sound waves, electricity, and mag- netism, her students were eager to learn physics by building electric guitars. “When I first started [teach- ing physics at New Philadelphia High School in New Philadelphia, Ohio], I had 14 students: nine gentlemen and five ladies. [Eight years later], I had 62 students and 50% girls and guys equally…My numbers really increased [after year three] when I implemented the guitar program.”

Few of her students “had expe- rience with hand tools, soldering, electronics. So this was a really good experience for my ‘academic’ students to gain more hands-on, real-world skills,” she maintains.

“That’s part of the intangibles that this project brings: confidence in ac- tually making something, something I think we’ve lost in high school. We no longer make things,” contends Tom Singer, professor of Mechanical Engineering Technology at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio, and the project’s principal investigator. “Having hands-on, kinesthetic-based learning is really important to capture a variety of students because not all students learn just from lecture and lab, or from reading it in the book, or watching the video. They actually want to learn using their hands.”

In addition, says French, “there is a lot of problem solving [involved, like] diagnosing a wiring problem, such as ‘Why is the jack buzzing? Is there a miss- ing ground? Is there a crossed wire?’”

The National STEM Guitar Proj- ect hosts Guitar Building Institutes around the country to give educators the chance to build a solid-body elec- tric guitar and use it to teach science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Thirty-two states now have at least one program that has imple- mented the STEM Guitar Project, notes Singer, adding, “We’ve got all levels of academic involvement, from middle schools all the way up to universities.”